Watching the Wheels

I begin today following up on the last post with one more comment about the Sun in C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Since the character of each traditional planet is presented by Lewis as a “splintered fragment of the true light,” i.e. as one part of the character and nature of Christ, then we can easily see Christ in Lewis’s conception of the Sun since our Lord is the source of knowledge and of transformation. And since Christ is our exemplar in all things pertaining to life and godliness, where we find ourselves in positions (professional and otherwise) of teaching and transforming, we follow and learn from Christ.

Next in the Narnia series (following the original order, of course) is The Silver Chair. The mention of silver in the title provides our link to the moon. As Michael Ward points out, in medieval and Renaissance cosmology the moon divides creation into the changeable, transient things below its sphere and the perfect, eternal things above. You’ll remember (I hope) that a large portion of the story takes place underground and involves debates with the witch about the differences between the world below the ground and the world above. The moon also affects mental health, providing another division, this time between sanity and luna-cy, a division whose effects are seen in Rilian as he passes between those two states each day. Are you a health-care worker? Whether you’re providing therapy to the mentally ill or just putting a band-aid on a child’s knee, learn from the Great Physician. (I don’t know what it has to do with the moon, but I want to mention my favorite allegorical image from the whole series, which appears in this volume: Eustace and Jill are looking for a message carved in the stone, but it doesn’t occur to them that the writing might be sized appropriately for the local giants, and they fail to recognize the smooth, closed canyons they walk through as the letters they’re seeking.)

The fifth of the Chronicles is The Horse and His Boy. Mercury is present everywhere in the book as rapidly traveling children and horses and lions merge and separate like beads of quicksilver. Human followers of the god of speed include traders and carriers. In his aspect as messenger, Mercury is a type for journalists and messengers. In his work of dividing and joining, he guides people who work in mathematics and analysis. If your line of work falls within any of these areas, learn from Jesus, the Word who will return traveling as fast as lightning across the sky.

In The Magician’s Nephew, we read of the creation of Narnia. Ward links this book with Venus. Our sex-crazed culture thinks only of Venus’s association with eroticism, but Lewis concentrates more (or totally) on her beauty and fertility. Anytime you make things, especially where you produce beautiful things, whether that means children, crops, or works of art, learn how to do this from the One through whom all things were made, remembering that “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Anyone squeamish about the whole idea of comparing Jesus to the planets worshiped by ancient pagans will do well to remember that He refers to Himself once as the Morning Star and is in many biblical passages compared to the Sun.)

There’s one book left and one planet, and as it turns out, The Last Battle and Saturn go together very nicely. Saturn is often depicted holding a scythe, an instrument which suggests among other things, agriculture. Lewis has already assigned the notion of growing things to Venus, though. Biblical references to the true God holding a sickle remind us that the scythe is used at the end of the agricultural cycle: at the time of reaping, the time of death. Having trouble associating the Way, the Truth, and the Life with death? Remember who holds the keys to Hell and to Death! And remember that for the faithful, death is but a transition; we might even say death is a Door. Honor Christ who holds both your life and your death in his hands. And thank the good Lord for all who work in professions of dissolution, decay, and closure. Buildings need great expertise when it’s time for them to be demolished. Bodies need tender, skilled, respectful care when they lie lifeless. And the trashman? The trashman should be paid four times what he makes now! Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Learn from Him to bring everything to its fitting end at the proper time.

A few short blog posts won’t convince you of Michael Ward’s theory. But if you’re on the verge of believing, consider that Saturn is often equated with the Greek Cronos, the god of time, and then think of Father Time waking up to signal the end of all things in The Last Battle. If you need more convincing, read one of Ward’s books. If, on the other hand, you’re sure you can’t be convinced of this theory . . . well, I don’t think you would have read this far if you’re that sure.