Worship of the Sun?
...It is curious to me that many occultists see something in Narnia which Christians do not. Specifically, elements of the ancient pagan practice of worshiping the sun. One definition of the suns place in mythology is as follows; “the active or male principle in nature, wanderer, lion, gold, symbolized by the bow and arrow”…Gertrude Jobes the “Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols.” Hmm, lion? Is it possible that C.S Lewis had more in mind than the “lion of Judah” when he created Aslan? Let’s look closer.
...In almost every description of Aslan he is described as having shaggy golden hair, spreading the feeling of spring with beams of light. (“Magicians Nephew”, pg 114, 173 and the whole creation story; and in the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”, pg 65 and especially pg 74) Remember the rhyme for Aslan’s return? “An old rhyme in these parts…When he bares his teeth winter meets its death and when he shakes his mane we shall have spring again”, the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” pg 74.
...All this in itself is not enough to make a case for possible sun worship. After all, Jesus Christ is gloriously bright, the bright and morning star. But now look at something else, the clincher.
...Who is Jadis? We all know she is the white witch, evil and holding a spell over Narnia. But who do you think she “symbolizes” in Lewis’ books? Most would say Satan or the “forces of evil” obviously! Yet wait, is it really that obvious. Who is Aslan sacrificed to in the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”? Remember Jadis words to Aslan, “that by the workings of the deep magic she was given ownership of all the traitors and the right to kill them”. If Jadis is a picture of Satan, and Aslan is a picture of Christ then this is at best heresy. We know that it is God who casts sinners into hell for their sins, not Satan. And Jesus Christ was sacrificed to God the Father as atonement for our sins, not to Satan.
Isaiah 53: 5-6 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
...So if Lewis trying to portray Christ here there are two options we can choose from; one, he believes Satan is a super force equal to God and must be “appeased”, not God the Father; two, he is trying to mix the Christian faith with pagan elements like worship of the sun. It is unlikely that a man of his caliber in education unwittingly made a “mistake”; he was a theologian. I favor option number two because of what else we find in his books.
...In the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”, pg 50, the white witch shaves off Aslan’s mane. I think this is more than a portrayal of the humiliation of Christ by His enemies. Ritual shaving of the head is associated with sun worship; the rays of the sun are cut off at night and during the winter, so priests/priestesses of this pagan worship cut off their hair when the sun “died”. This fact sheds light on why God forbids the shaving of His priest’s heads, see Ezekiel 44:20. “They shall neither shave their heads, nor let their hair grow long, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed. “ The Lord didn’t want any confusion or similarities between his servants and those of idols.
...It’s interesting that Aslan rose with the next dawn after his death, and that mice gnawed off the ropes which bound him. Mice are sacred to Apollo the Greek sun god. In fact “Apollon” means “from the depths of the lion” or “father lion”. How many times do we read descriptions of Aslan facing the sun as it rose in the east? Many times, remember what God said in Ezekiel 8:13-15 about those who worshiped the sun rising in the east?
Ezekiel 8:13-15 And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again; you will see greater abominations than these.” So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.
...There is a lot here to be thought about. Did you know that the Chronicles of Narnia are loved by the occult and sold on the shelves next to witchcraft? Those who are witches/satanic recognize the pagan themes in Narnia and embrace it. What did Christ say about Himself?
Mathew 10:33-35 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’…
...Christ said that the world would hate Him and us, why then is the world so enamored with Narnia if it is true Christian allegory? (After all, Disney made a production of it!) It is because they do not find Christ in Narnia, it is not “Christian” enough to convict or bother them. But it is “Christian” enough to deceive many of God’s own.
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4 comments:
You have made it quite clear that the parallels that you have drawn between pagan practice and Mr. Lewis' work, do exist. Though he made a very bad choice when he tampered with the pagan influence, do you suppose it was a thought out attack of his on Christianity, or maybe could it be that he made a very big mistake when writing his books. That is to say, did he connect all the dots that you and other people have. Or are people (I cannot say reading in something other then what he wrote, seeing as though it is in his books) but rather interpreting something more then what he had meant to put in. I guess the final way to put it is, will he go to hell for purposefully trying to mix Christianity with idolatry as part of a cult, or was he really a christian that was just as imperfect as me and you. Obviously since so many people thought and think he was a christian, even a great christian there had to be some fruits or some reason for them to thing so. Like I said earlier in my e-mail, I do not know anything about his personal life.
However I do believe that the case against Mr. Lewis is strong, however if there is reason for people to believe he was a christian then I will not call him cultist or christian in till I have heard the reason for people to be so convince that Mr. Lewis is christian. So if there is any one on Mr. Lewis' side who would like to enlighten me, please post so I may hear that side of the story. (It would be such a bother to have to research it all myself. But if that is what it takes...)
But one thing I will say, he made a really really big mistake when he wrote his books. Weather he was Christian or cultist it was still a blunder.
Many other men that have been thought of as great people, even great Christians, we now know they were Mason. Pastor John Otis is writing a book on the Masons and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in defending the church against one of the most dangerous cults of our time.
Thanks to everyone who put this blog together and post on it, please keep up the work.
Robert Lewis. (Lewis after Robert Lewis Dabney, not C.S..)
Robert,
Thanks for the comment and question, I also appreciated the email.
I do not pretend to know whether or not C.S Lewis is in fact a Christian, or if he intentionally meant to deceive Christians. It is possible he deceived himself, our own hearts are prone to do that.
It is a fact that in his youth, before becoming a Christian, C.S Lewis dabbled in the occult. Does this mean that after his conversion he would be called an occultist? No, not if he truly believed in Jesus Christ. But we must judge his works and the fruit themselves. His books are filled with occultism and his depiction of God is flawed at best. Also despite his conversion C.S Lewis maintained friendships with known occultist's and highly recommended there works.
Here is a quote of C.S Lewis from his work "Surprised by Joy", he said this when all but four of his works were written.
“And that started in me something with which, on and off, I have had plenty of trouble since--the desire for the preternatural, simply as such, the passion for the Occult. Not everyone has this disease; those who have will know what I mean. I once tried to describe it in a novel. It is a spiritual lust; and like the lust of the body it has the fatal power of making everything else in the world seem uninteresting while it lasts.”
Anyways, to sum up; I do not know whether or not C.S Lewis was in fact saved. But I do know he was exposed to the occult during his life and this clearly comes out in his writings.
Well there you go. I did not know he had such a connection to the cults. He must have in some small way at least know what he was doing. When I heard part of the Great Devoice read, I thought he was taking poetic license. I am not so sure now that I can attribute an over active imagination to some of his writings now.
Anyway, is there any single book that he wrote that is Christian with out any pagan cross between the two?
Robert L.
I think I would have connected the dots in a slightly different order than you did, but the conclusion is roughly the same, there are definite references to pagan mythologies, and the occult. This is not surprising, as it has long been the practice of less doctrinally sound Christians to try to blend things of Christ with things of the world, one of the reasons why in I Corinthians Paul makes the point that light has no fellowship with darkness.
The entire Roman Catholic "Church" is an example of blending Christian doctrine with pagan practice. With its system of Saints, Roman Catholicism is very much like pagan Greek and Roman religion, cities and individuals had patron gods, and goddesses, in Roman Catholicism we see countries and individuals with patron Saints, like St. George for England, St. Patrick for Ireland, and St. Andrew for Scotland. Many humanistic historians criticize "Christianity" for simply being a rehash of pagan worship except with this funny idea of the trinity thrown in, and this is largely due to the way Roman Catholicism adapted pagan rites into its worship. C.S Lewis may have dabbled in the occult, but Roman Catholicism is a cult. A cult that has for centuries disguised itself as being Christian. Evidence of how Catholicism incorporates pagan worship can clearly be seen in that Roman Catholic practice varies to some extent around the world due to the different aspects of pagan worship that were adopted in each location. For instance the Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Sadly, Roman Catholicism does not have a corner on adopting pagan worship and symbology, and failure to keep separate form the world has been a problem throughout church history. A good recent example of this is the popularity in some circles of Theistic Evolution, a position that has no real scientific backing, and more importantly cannot be defended scripturally either.
In the case of C.S Lewis, some may argue that instead of trying to subvert Christianity, he was trying to sanctify pagan symbols, to “Take every thought captive to Christ,” but the method he used is the same that has so corrupted Roman Catholicism that it can no longer be considered a true church. It is an attempt to sprinkle Greek/Roman mythology with “Holy water,” but again, “What fellowship has light with darkness?”
John Calvin
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