CS Lewis included a secret code in the Chronicles of Narnia linking each story to a planet, according to Michael Ward in the BBC documentary The Narnia Code you can access above.
It has long been accepted that the classic children’s series features Christian symbolism, but scholars have laboured for years to discover a third level of meaning, trying unsuccessfully to fit the themes of the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser’s Faerie Queene to the novels.
Now a documentary from award-winning director Norman Stone, based on a new academic’s study of Lewis’s writing, says it has uncovered the true hidden layer in the novels. This, it is claimed, is medieval cosmology, with each of the Christian and medieval scholar’s books linked to one of the seven planets of the era’s cosmology.
“There are three layers of meaning – it’s like three-dimensional chess. Instead of wishy-washy fairy tales, in fact this proves they are quite the opposite – he was writing happily on three levels,” said Stone, who has interviewed academics and friends of Lewis for the documentary. Dr Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia on which the documentary is based, believes that it was Lewis’s scholarship that led him to the idea. He was fascinated with the medieval view of the heavens, which he saw as “tingling with anthropomorphic life, dancing, ceremonial, a festival not a machine”.
Rather than being a simple a=b allegory, said Stone, “it is a complete, atmospheric … extra layer you can read into the story, which all double-emphasises this God-centred universe he created in Narnia”.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is written to embody the qualities associated with Jupiter– the “king of the seven heavens” who was connected to the passing of winter and the coming of summer, claimed Ward.
“It’s a story of kingship – will Edmund become king under the White Witch or will Peter become High King under Aslan? And it’s a story of the defeat of winter: ‘winter passed and guilt forgiven’, as Lewis put it when describing Jupiter’s influence in his long 1935 poem The Planets,” Ward said.
Prince Caspian, he claimed, is the Marsstory – Mars is the god of war, and the novel is the story of the civil war to drive out the usurping King Miraz. Mars is also the god of woods and forests, he added, “hence the continual use of tree imagery throughout the story and the appearance of “silvans” at the final battle, who never appear in any other Chronicle”. Reepicheep, meanwhile, is a “martial” mouse, and Miraz frets over his “martial policy”.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is linked to Sol, or the sun, he said: Aslan is seen flying in a sunbeam, the sun’s rising place, “the very eastern end of the world”, is the ship’s destination, and magical water turns things to gold, the solar metal.
The Silver Chairis linked to Luna, the moon, the planet closest to Earth, according to pre-Copernican astronomy.
The Last Battle is associated with “the worst planet, Saturnwhose influence could most easily go bad”.
“It’s astonishing that it’s taken over fifty years for anyone to spot this hidden inner theme, because it’s blindingly obvious once you see it. As Chesterton said, ‘If you want to hide something, put it in the open’,” Ward said.
He believes that Lewis used the code secretly because he wanted “to communicate to his readers’ imaginations … to announce in advance that this was his intention would have been to frustrate the very thing he was trying to achieve.”
The Chronicles of Narnia, which Lewis wrote between 1950 and 1956, have sold over 100m copies worldwide. Lewis, who died in 1963 aged 64, was an atheist until he converted to Christianity in 1931. He cited his friendship with JRR Tolkien, and the writings of GK Chesterton, as part of the reason for his conversion.
Stone said the discovery would make the author part of today’s debates over religion. “This is a piece of Lewis which has remained untouched for 60 years – it blows the dust off, brings him into the light of day with Dawkins and the neo-atheists Pullman and Hitchens,” he said. “It’s fresh Lewis, as if he was standing up in the debating chair saying ‘this is my worldview’. Lewis’s stance was incredibly different to that pushed by [today’s] bleak populist view.”
From: The Guardian
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For those of you who would like to know more about the making of the Narnia Code follow this hot link to our =>Michael Ward & PlanetNarniapage where you will find Eric Metaxas in his Socrates in the City interview with Michael Ward. You will also find a hot link to Eric Metaxas’ interview with Walter Hooper.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Ken Myers
Alan Jacobs on The Narnian: how The Chronicles of Narnia reveal much of C. S. Lewis’s thinking on almost everything, and on how Lewis’s imagination was prepared to write such books
The White Witch, Aslan, fauns and talking beasts, centaurs and epic battles between good and evil — all these have become a part of our collective imagination through the classic volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia. Over the past half century, children everywhere have escaped into this world and delighted in its wonders and enchantments. Yet what we do know of the man who created Narnia? This biography sheds new light on the making of the original Narnian, C. S. Lewis himself.
Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential religious writer of his day. An Oxford don and scholar of medieval literature, he loved to debate philosophy at his local pub, and his wartime broadcasts on the basics of Christian belief made him a celebrity in his native Britain. Yet one of the most intriguing aspects of Clive Staples Lewis remains a mystery. How did this middle-aged Irish bachelor turn to the writing of stories for children — stories that would become among the most popular and beloved ever written?
Alan Jacobs masterfully tells the story of the original Narnian. From Lewis’s childhood days in Ireland playing with his brother, Warnie, to his horrific experiences in the trenches during World War I, to his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien (and other members of the “Inklings”), and his remarkable late-life marriage to Joy Davidman, Jacobs traces the events and people that shaped Lewis’s philosophy, theology, and fiction. The result is much more than a conventional biography of Lewis: Jacobs tells the story of a profound and extraordinary imagination. For those who grew up with Narnia, or for those just discovering it,The Narnian tells a remarkable tale of a man who knew great loss and great delight, but who knew above all that the world holds far more richness and meaning than the average eye can see.
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To hear Myers interview with Alan Jacobs on the life and mind of C.S. Lewis, click ==> Track1
To learn more about The Narnianclick on that title and you will be taken to a page off our bookshelf where you will find reviews and order information for those who might be interested in obtaining a copy for themselves.
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For those of you who would like to ponder the magnificent way in which Lewis incorporated the Imagination into everything he did, you may want to visit our The C.S. Lewis Symposium page where you can find Michael Guite’s (second in the three part series) discussion which was given on the 21st of November 2013, the day before the 50th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’ death, Westminster Abbey Institute hosted a C.S. Lewis Symposium in honour of his apologetics legacy, held in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster. In this second lecture, “Telling the Truth Through Imaginative Fiction”, Dr Malcolm Guite reads from the poetry and storytelling of C.S. Lewis, examining how Lewis sought to reconcile the perceived conflict between imagination and reason, and the vital role imagination would ultimately play in Lewis’s apologetics. This is followed by questions from the audience.
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Finally, for those of you who would like to think about the Imagination a bit further I would like to direct your attention our C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium page on which you will find a YouTube on the imagination at the bottom of the page by the incomparable Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft .
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CS Lewis included a secret code in the Chronicles of Narnia linking each story to a planet, according to a BBC documentary to be aired next Easter.
It has long been accepted that the classic children’s series features Christian symbolism, but scholars have laboured for years to discover a third level of meaning, trying unsuccessfully to fit the themes of the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser’s Faerie Queene to the novels.
Now a documentary from award-winning director Norman Stone, based on a new academic’s study of Lewis’s writing, says it has uncovered the true hidden layer in the novels. This, it is claimed, is medieval cosmology, with each of the Christian and medieval scholar’s books linked to one of the seven planets of the era’s cosmology.
“There are three layers of meaning – it’s like three-dimensional chess. Instead of wishy-washy fairy tales, in fact this proves they are quite the opposite – he was writing happily on three levels,” said Stone, who has interviewed academics and friends of Lewis for the documentary.Dr Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia on which the documentary is based, believes that it was Lewis’s scholarship that led him to the idea. He was fascinated with the medieval view of the heavens, which he saw as “tingling with anthropomorphic life, dancing, ceremonial, a festival not a machine”.
CS Lewis included a secret code in the Chronicles of Narnia linking each story to a planet, according to a BBC documentary to be aired next Easter.
It has long been accepted that the classic children’s series features Christian symbolism, but scholars have laboured for years to discover a third level of meaning, trying unsuccessfully to fit the themes of the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser’s Faerie Queene to the novels.
Now a documentary from award-winning director Norman Stone, based on a new academic’s study of Lewis’s writing, says it has uncovered the true hidden layer in the novels. This, it is claimed, is medieval cosmology, with each of the Christian and medieval scholar’s books linked to one of the seven planets of the era’s cosmology.
“There are three layers of meaning – it’s like three-dimensional chess. Instead of wishy-washy fairy tales, in fact this proves they are quite the opposite – he was writing happily on three levels,” said Stone, who has interviewed academics and friends of Lewis for the documentary.Dr Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia on which the documentary is based, believes that it was Lewis’s scholarship that led him to the idea. He was fascinated with the medieval view of the heavens, which he saw as “tingling with anthropomorphic life, dancing, ceremonial, a festival not a machine”.
Rather than being a simple a=b allegory, said Stone, “it is a complete, atmospheric … extra layer you can read into the story, which all double-emphasises this God-centred universe he created in Narnia”.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is written to embody the qualities associated with Jupiter – the “king of the seven heavens” who was connected to the passing of winter and the coming of summer, claimed Ward.
“It’s a story of kingship – will Edmund become king under the White Witch or will Peter become High King under Aslan? And it’s a story of the defeat of winter: ‘winter passed and guilt forgiven’, as Lewis put it when describing Jupiter’s influence in his long 1935 poem The Planets,” Ward said.
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Prince Caspian, he claimed, is the Mars story – Mars is the god of war, and the novel is the story of the civil war to drive out the usurping King Miraz. Mars is also the god of woods and forests, he added, “hence the continual use of tree imagery throughout the story and the appearance of “silvans” at the final battle, who never appear in any other Chronicle”. Reepicheep, meanwhile, is a “martial” mouse, and Miraz frets over his “martial policy”.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is linked to Sol, or the sun, he said: Aslan is seen flying in a sunbeam, the sun’s rising place, “the very eastern end of the world”, is the ship’s destination, and magical water turns things to gold, the solar metal.
The Silver Chair is linked to Luna, the moon, the planet closest to Earth, according to pre-Copernican astronomers. The Horse and his Boy embodies the qualities of Mercury, Venus is linked to The Magician’s Nephew, and Saturn, “the worst planet, the one whose influence could most easily go bad”, to The Last Battle.
“It’s astonishing that it’s taken over fifty years for anyone to spot this hidden inner theme, because it’s blindingly obvious once you see it. As Chesterton said, ‘If you want to hide something, put it in the open’,” Ward said.
He believes that Lewis used the code secretly because he wanted “to communicate to his readers’ imaginations … to announce in advance that this was his intention would have been to frustrate the very thing he was trying to achieve.”
The Chronicles of Narnia, which Lewis wrote between 1950 and 1956, have sold over 100m copies worldwide. Lewis, who died in 1963 aged 64, was an atheist until he converted to Christianity in 1931. He cited his friendship with JRR Tolkien, and the writings of GK Chesterton, as part of the reason for his conversion.
Stone said the discovery would make the author part of today’s debates over religion. “This is a piece of Lewis which has remained untouched for 60 years – it blows the dust off, brings him into the light of day with Dawkins and the neo-atheists Pullman and Hitchens,” he said. “It’s fresh Lewis, as if he was standing up in the debating chair saying ‘this is my worldview’. Lewis’s stance was incredibly different to that pushed by [today’s] bleak populist view.”
CS Lewis included a secret code in the Chronicles of Narnia linking each story to a planet, according to a BBC documentary to be aired next Easter.
It has long been accepted that the classic children’s series features Christian symbolism, but scholars have laboured for years to discover a third level of meaning, trying unsuccessfully to fit the themes of the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser’s Faerie Queene to the novels.
Now a documentary from award-winning director Norman Stone, based on a new academic’s study of Lewis’s writing, says it has uncovered the true hidden layer in the novels. This, it is claimed, is medieval cosmology, with each of the Christian and medieval scholar’s books linked to one of the seven planets of the era’s cosmology.
“There are three layers of meaning – it’s like three-dimensional chess. Instead of wishy-washy fairy tales, in fact this proves they are quite the opposite – he was writing happily on three levels,” said Stone, who has interviewed academics and friends of Lewis for the documentary.Dr Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia on which the documentary is based, believes that it was Lewis’s scholarship that led him to the idea. He was fascinated with the medieval view of the heavens, which he saw as “tingling with anthropomorphic life, dancing, ceremonial, a festival not a machine”.
Rather than being a simple a=b allegory, said Stone, “it is a complete, atmospheric … extra layer you can read into the story, which all double-emphasises this God-centred universe he created in Narnia”.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is written to embody the qualities associated with Jupiter – the “king of the seven heavens” who was connected to the passing of winter and the coming of summer, claimed Ward.
“It’s a story of kingship – will Edmund become king under the White Witch or will Peter become High King under Aslan? And it’s a story of the defeat of winter: ‘winter passed and guilt forgiven’, as Lewis put it when describing Jupiter’s influence in his long 1935 poem The Planets,” Ward said.
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Prince Caspian, he claimed, is the Mars story – Mars is the god of war, and the novel is the story of the civil war to drive out the usurping King Miraz. Mars is also the god of woods and forests, he added, “hence the continual use of tree imagery throughout the story and the appearance of “silvans” at the final battle, who never appear in any other Chronicle”. Reepicheep, meanwhile, is a “martial” mouse, and Miraz frets over his “martial policy”.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is linked to Sol, or the sun, he said: Aslan is seen flying in a sunbeam, the sun’s rising place, “the very eastern end of the world”, is the ship’s destination, and magical water turns things to gold, the solar metal.
The Silver Chair is linked to Luna, the moon, the planet closest to Earth, according to pre-Copernican astronomers. The Horse and his Boy embodies the qualities of Mercury, Venus is linked to The Magician’s Nephew, and Saturn, “the worst planet, the one whose influence could most easily go bad”, to The Last Battle.
“It’s astonishing that it’s taken over fifty years for anyone to spot this hidden inner theme, because it’s blindingly obvious once you see it. As Chesterton said, ‘If you want to hide something, put it in the open’,” Ward said.
He believes that Lewis used the code secretly because he wanted “to communicate to his readers’ imaginations … to announce in advance that this was his intention would have been to frustrate the very thing he was trying to achieve.”
The Chronicles of Narnia, which Lewis wrote between 1950 and 1956, have sold over 100m copies worldwide. Lewis, who died in 1963 aged 64, was an atheist until he converted to Christianity in 1931. He cited his friendship with JRR Tolkien, and the writings of GK Chesterton, as part of the reason for his conversion.
Stone said the discovery would make the author part of today’s debates over religion. “This is a piece of Lewis which has remained untouched for 60 years – it blows the dust off, brings him into the light of day with Dawkins and the neo-atheists Pullman and Hitchens,” he said. “It’s fresh Lewis, as if he was standing up in the debating chair saying ‘this is my worldview’. Lewis’s stance was incredibly different to that pushed by [today’s] bleak populist view.”
