Why Did Psyche Sin?

This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by David Bates for the Pints with Jack podcast. I hope you will enjoy the episode with is scheduled to come out on the intermediate days of Passover.  Of course, we spent a good amount of time talking about Narnia, but we spent some time on Lewis' other books as well including Till We Have Faces (TWHF).

In our discussion of TWHF I mentioned a question to which we did not probe further: Why did Psyche sin? She knew her husband was a god, she knew she was in the right, and she should have been willing to sacrifice even Orual (who was threatening suicide) for her husband. So why didn't she?

Actually, Psyche explains why to Orual. She says, in reference to her husband, "He cannot be cruel like you. I'll not believe it. He will know how I was tortured into my disobedience. He will forgive me." But he doesn't and she knew that he might not saying, "before sunrise, all my happiness may be destroyed forever." So, Psyche is banished and subject to hunger, thirst, and hard roads. 

But in fact, if Psyche truly loved her husband, the question of punishment is irrelevant. We honor the words of He who we love, not for reward or fear of punishment, but because He commanded them. And this is so even at the expense of one's relatives, as Moses describes the proper actions of the tribe of Levi and the Fox tells Orual, "And mother and wife and child and friend will all be in league to keep a soul from being united with the Divine Nature." So why did Psyche disregard his words?

I have a couple of suggestions which, along with everything else I've written about TWHF, should be regarded as speculative. Hopefully I'll expand on them at some other time, but for now I just want to say what they are:

(1) Psyche did truly love the god of the West Wind but did not fear him. The Torah commands that we both love and fear God, and it is fear that the Psalmist identifies as the beginning of wisdom. Of course, fear need not be fear of punishment, though it could be that too, but it may be awe. Or it may be fear of losing one's love. Either way, Psyche, though she pays lip-service to fear saying she is "afraid - no ashamed, to disobey him," does not fear her husband and is thus willing to sin against him. 

(2) Psyche realized there is ugliness in the gods. Could it be that Psyche finally saw the gods from Orual's perspective and realized there was ugliness about them? Or that if she could not convince Orual (or, presumably, others) of their true nature there was no point?

Anyway, I'm not sure for now, but perhaps something to think about.