Introduction

Around 2008 or 2009, Michael Ward gave a presentation of Planet Narnia at Hillsdale College. I may or may not have attended. I can’t remember for certain. Then he gave a presentation of Planet Narnia at New Saint Andrews College in 2015 which I did attend and do remember vividly. And in 2022, I finally got around to reading the book. The presentations were great, but the book is phenomenal. Just an incredible work. Slam dunk. Home-run. Maximally persuasive. Highly recommend.

In Planet Narnia, Ward argues that C. S. Lewis infused each book of the Narnian Chronicles with an atmosphere, or as he calls it, a donegality, of the medieval cosmos. That’s it. That each of the seven heavens of the medieval conception corresponds to each of the Chronicles. In the medieval world the seven heavens, or seven planets were associated with different ancient gods. These gods each had different qualities to them which appear in the corresponding Chronicle. And each of these qualities are often shown as different aspects of Aslan. If Augustine baptized Plato, and Aquinas baptized Aristotle, then I think we might say Lewis baptized the gods.

I’ve recently been reading St. Justin Martyr’s Apologies. St. Justin tells us that the pagan gods come from demons. These demons heard various prophecies of Christ from the prophets, like Moses and Isaiah. Then the demons provided these various imitations of fulfilled messianic prophecies, which were the various pagans gods. So, the fallen angels were trying to rob God of his glory, by creating these false imitations of Christ. I would argue Lewis is stealing these imitations and giving the glory back to Christ. If the demons were trying to lead people away from Christ with these myths, Lewis is trying to lead people to Christ with them.

Planet Narnia is remarkable for many reasons. One is that no one ever noticed Lewis was doing this. Yet, Michael Ward makes a very compelling case. He gives us a mountain of evidence to demonstrate that this was in fact intentional on Lewis’ part.

Ward does this by giving us evidence from Lewis’ other works including his poetry, his personal letters, and his other fictional series, the Ransom Trilogy.

For example, in Lewis’ essay on alliterative metre, he says, “The characters of the planets, as conceived by medieval astrology, seem to me to have a permanent value as spiritual symbols.” (C. S. Lewis, The Alliterative Metre)

Ward shows us how the characters of the planets show up as spiritual symbols in the Narniad. If you want to know how they correspond, you need to read the book. But I will briefly attempt to summarize or give scattered glimpses of the spiritual symbols of each heaven, and the corresponding book where we experience them incognito.

The seven heavens are Luna, Mercury, Venus, Sol, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Jupiter and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Jupiter is the sovereign planet. The god enthroned over all the other gods. To the Greeks, he is Zeus. To the Romans, he is Jove, where we get the term jovial. He is an enthroned king at peace. Jupiter is the archetype of all that is Kingly, as Lewis says in his book The Discarded Image. “But we must think of a King at peace, enthroned, taking his leisure, serene. The Jovial character is cheerful, festive, yet temperate, tranquil, magnanimous. When this planet dominates we may expect halcyon days and prosperity. In Dante, wise and just princes go to his sphere when they die. He is the best planet, and is called The Greater Fortune, Fortuna Major.” (C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, Ch. 5, quoted in p. 43 of Planet Narnia)

Ward shows us how the Jovial spirit is the organizing principle of the The Lion.

One example among many: Ward brings attention to Aslan’s sacrifice. “Lewis was not so much interested in how the atonement worked as in the fact that it worked. ‘How’ questions, though useful up to a point, were, in his view, inexhaustible. We can never ‘look at’ the atonement from the outside, determining scientifically its means of operation, the relative quantities of human and divine action, the precise calibration of the juridical element. At some point we must simply Enjoy it as one feature of the divine life. Myers approaches the right kind of opinion when she says: ‘the desired response to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is not to believe in the vicarious suffering of Christ but to taste it, as Jane tasted kingship in That Hideous Strength.’ The kingship offered to our palates in The Lion is a fuller-bodied kingship than that in the final Ransom book, and vicarious suffering is only one ingredient in it, but the principle Myers enunciates is correct.

This sacrificial bloodshed is not an end in itself, then; rather, it is important for what it achieves, the overthrow of all anti-festal forces as symbolised by the Saturnine winter.” (p. 70)

Ward again:

“Jovial symbolism is simply appropriated and put to work as Christian symbolism. In this respect, Lewis is ingeniously reversing the normal pattern of his medieval and renaissance sources. ‘In Spenser, as in Milton and many others, Jove is often Jehovah incognito.’ In The Lion, the divine figure is Jove incognito.” (pp. 73-74)

One quick point. On this reading, it makes sense of things like Father Christmas showing up. It isn’t random like some people think. It’s intentional to Lewis’ Jovial tableau.

Mars and Prince Caspian

Mars is the god of war. To the Greeks, he is Ares. The son of Zeus and Hera, or Jupiter and Juno. In his poem, The Planets, Lewis describes the god of war as ‘necessity’s son’. Taken aright, Mars strengthens noble warriors and gives resolve to the martyr. In Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis calls Mars Malacandra. “Ransom observes ‘the war-like nature’ of the preparations for the hnakra-hunt and it speaks to something long-sleeping in his blood.”

In the Narniad, Mars corresponds to Prince Caspian.

“Lewis had his eye on creating a Martial atmosphere and, indeed, the very word ‘martial’ appears twice in Prince Caspian, the only one of the seven Chronicles in which it occurs at all. Reepicheep is described as a ‘martial mouse’ and Miraz frets over his ‘martial policy.’ In something of a Martial pun, ‘marshals’ are appointed to oversee the lists.

The Martial temperament is one of ‘sturdy hardiness,’ according to The Discarded Image, and the Martial visage is ‘hard and happy,’ according to ‘The Planets.'” (p. 89)

Ward Again:

“Martial hardness, then, is not to be confused with heartlessness or the gratification of lust for physical power. Rather, properly understood, it is that strength which, on the one hand, gives backbone to the milksop and, on the other hand, reins in machismo. Within these two extremes, war service, if it is necessary, may be entered into with ‘a kind of gaiety and wholeheartedness.'” (p. 94) Excellent.

As Mars, Aslan commands the army in Prince Caspian. He marshals and inspires his troops.

Knightliness is Mars taken aright. Peter exemplifies this when he doesn’t take advantage of Miraz tripping during the one-on-one combat. Peter says, “I suppose it is what Aslan would like.”

“Martyrdom, not knighthood, is the summit of Martial achievement and contains no worldly dignity or honour, only crucifixion-like shame that must be ‘despised’ (Heb. 12:2)” In Prince Caspian Lewis gives us three martyrs, that is, three characters who witness to the truth and suffer for it: Caspian’s Nurse, Dr. Cornelius, and Lucy Pevensie.

Mars Silvanus, is an early form of Mars, and is a god of vegetation, which is why the Spring month of March is named after him. And this explains the forest attacking the Telmarines at the end. In Rome, the festival of Mars began on the first of the month, but the Bacchanalian festivities began immediately following the Ides of March. Which explains why we also see Bacchus at the end of Prince Caspian. It also explains why we see Miraz betrayed and stabbed in the back by his own men, just as Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March.

Mars is associated with wolves, woodpeckers, and horses. All three are in Prince Caspian. The werewolf fights with Prince Caspian. The arrows thocking into wood are described as ‘the stroke of a woodpecker,’ and Caspian’s horse is named Destrier which means war-horse or charger. The equivalent of Mars in Norse mythology is Tyr or Tiw which is where we get Tuesday. Tyr protects the community by binding a wolf, but had his hand bitten off in the process. Caspian is bit by the werewolf in his skirmish. Lewis says elsewhere that lycanthropy was possible in knights who didn’t tame their inner animal inside of chivalry. The Turkish form of Mars means Torch, and we see the appearance of torches in Prince Caspian. The children attempt to make torches, but fail. But they are able to use Edmund’s electric torch, his flashlight.

Sol and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. To the Greeks, Sol is Apollo. The god of the sun. Sol is particularly associated with gold, the most noble metal. These and many other characteristics are found in The Voyage.

After our Narnian voyagers discover the pool that turns everything to gold, they all witness Aslan in the distance.

“Across the grey hillside above them – grey, for the heather was not in bloom – without noise, and without looking at them, and shining as as if he were in bright sunlight though the sun had in fact gone in, passed with slow pace the hugest lion that human eyes have ever seen. In describing the scene Lucy said afterwards, ‘ He was the size of an elephant,’ though at another time she only said, ‘The size of a cart-horse.’ But it was not the size that mattered. Nobody dared to ask what it was. They knew it was Aslan.” (Excerpt from The Voyage, Planet Narnia, pp. 110-111)

Ward says, “Lewis’s primary concern is not with the literal sun: ‘the sun had in fact gone in.’ He is concerned with the the one of whom the Sun is an image, the golden lion. ‘Nobody dared to ask what it was. They knew it was Aslan’ – an echo of John 21:12 (‘None of the disciples dared ask of him, ‘Who are you?'” Ward talks about the grey heather signifying the cursedness of the island, and also an allusion to the hoard of Spencer’s Mammon, which is grey, and which is set out in the sun to make it gold.

Ward gives a great compliment here: “This episode is an example Lewis’ skill in blending romance, medieval astrology, literary and Biblical allusion, and his own ‘suppositional’ allegory. The powers of co-ordination and translation required to achieve such a sophisticated imaginative mix without overwhelming the narrative – indeed without making the narrative seem anything other than entirely natural and consistent – should not be under-estimated.” (Planet Narnia, p. 111) Amen. What Lewis is doing here is simply remarkable.

In the Greek form, Apollo was famously known as a killer of dragons. Apollo Sauroctonus, Apollo the Lizard-Slayer. Saura is the Greek for lizard, serpent, worm, or dragon. Tolkien names his chief villain in the Lord of the Rings Sauron. In the voyage of the Dawn Treader, there are four slain dragons. Lewis is enlisting Sol as Apollo Sauroctonus here.

The first dragon is seen in chapter 6. It’s old and dying, and the Narnia voyagers witness its death. Lewis makes mention of the sun beating down and then leaving. Ward argues this is redolent of a story found in the Hymn of Apollo.

The second dragon is Eustace, who is transformed into a dragon because of his sin. And he is “defeated” by submitting to Aslan, Apollo Sauroctunus, Sol incognito.

The third dragon is the Sea-Serpent which tries to crush the ship.

The fourth dragon is the Dawn Treader itself, with its stern in the shape of a dragon’s tail, its bowsprit a dragon’s head, and the sides – dragon wings. The ship itself is a symbol of Prince Caspian’s own avariciousness. “All dragons collect gold,” says Edmund in connection to the dragon that is Eustace. The dragon shaped ship, which was built by Prince Caspian, with his own quarters decorated with crimson dragons. Caspian is noble and heroic, but not immune to the worst kind of motivations. Caspian is intent on taking over Aslan’s country. Aslan as Sol, intervenes and burns away the dross of Caspian’s ignoble ambitions.

Aslan appears seven times in The Voyage and each time he becomes more solar.

Aslan appears in the beam of light as a cross, plane, kite, then a bird.

And finally at the end we have another Johannine aspect, when Edmund asks Aslan, “Are you there [in our world] too, Sir?” To which Aslan replies, “I am.” Which has dual reference to the Tetragrammaton and also to Christ’s statement, “I am the light of the world.”

The Solar donegality is everywhere in the Voyage.

Luna and The Silver Chair

Luna is the moon goddess. She is known by several names to the Greeks, such as Selene, Artemis, and Cynthia. Since she is only permitted to rule the night, she is known as being envious of Sol. And this we see in the Moonwitch of the underworld who hates the realm of the day, Narnia, and diminishes the bigness of Aslan and the Sun and things like this.

Ward points out that the Moonwitch makes arguments like Feuerbach or Freud or Marx. That their conception of the Sun was just an extrapolation of Underworld realties, like the Lamp for the Sun or the Cat for the Lion.

Ward says the Moonwitch will acknowledge no solar supremacy. Her light must be uncreaturely, self-sustaining, not derived or dependent. But The Moon, as Lewis put it in an early poem, is a stone that catches the sun’s beam.’ and this is the correct way of understanding things according to the divinely ordained great chain of being.

In Lewis’ poem of The Planets he describes Luna as melancholy pale. And Lewis almost overdoes it with describing so much as pale as the children descend into the witch’s underworld.

Aslan’s instructions to Jill are almost certainly an allusion to the Old Testament Shema. “Remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs.” I don’t think Ward comments on this much, but I will add that the OT is like the moon, it’s light is derivative, whereas the NT is like the Sun itself. Jesus is even called the Dayspring, the Rising Sun.

Mercury and The Horse and His Boy

Mercury is a rapid god. Mercury orbits the sun every 88 days. He is known as Hermes to the Greeks and Wodin to the Norsemen. Because he is fast, he is known as the messenger of the gods. Because he is a messenger, Lewis calls him the lord of language in his poem on The Planets. He is associated with quicksilver, another name for mercury. When mercury is in a dish it rolls around dividing up into droplets and then quickly recombining back together. It is mercurial.

This dividing up and coming back together is seen in The Horse and His Boy in numerous ways. Most prominently is the separation of the twins Cor (or Shasta) and Corin and their reunion. Mercury is thought to rule over the Gemini, which are twins in Greek mythology. Castor and Pollux. Ward suggest that these twins are the models for Shasta and Corin.

Homer describes Castor as a great breaker of horses. And Pollux as a renowned boxer. Shasta doesn’t break Bree in the conventional sense, but he does break Bree’s pride and self-conceit. Bree says, “At least Shasta ran in the right direction: ran back.” Cor/Shasta suggests a portmanteau, Castor. Corin floors a boy who insults Queen Susan, then the boy’s brother, then the first boy again. He threatens to knock down Thornbut before the Battle of Anvard. He demands to box Rabadash.

There are several other types of twins or pairings. Two armies. Two girls. Two hands. Two horses, etc. It’s everywhere.

In the beginning of the book we have a Mercurial chase. Shasta is united to Bree. Aravis is united with Hwin. They are driven close to each other by the roaring lions. Bree veers right. Hwin veers left. Then they are forced back to together side by side. In Tashbaan they separate. Shasta with the Narnians. Aravis with Lasaraleen. The horses with the stable hand. Shasta runs ahead at the hermit’s house, alone, but returns there later. Division and reunification.

Shasta has to deliver a message to the King of Archenland, which is very straightforward – Mercury, messenger of the gods imagery.

Aslan, like Mercury is swift of foot. And throughout the story we encounter many different lions and even a cat, and they were all the one lion, Aslan. A very Mercurial picture of multiplicity and singularity. It’s very Trinitarian. When Shasta asks who Aslan is, Aslan responds with a very deep threefold, “Myself.” One Lion in a Threefold Myself. A Christianized Hermes as Ward puts it.

Ward does so much more here in explicating the Mercurial donegality in this book as it relates to language, and words, and puns, and silence. It’s too much to engage here, but it is fantastic.

Venus and The Magician’s Nephew

Venus is the “laughter-loving goddess.” In Greek she is known as Aphrodite. In the Magician’s Nephew, Jadis, the witch, is greeted in London with roars of laughter. In the creation of Narnia we see plenty of laughter. The sun laughed for joy at its’ first dawn. The jackdaw makes the First Joke, and all the other animals try to repress their laughter, but then Aslan says, “Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.” So, they all begin to laugh together.

The witch Jadis is derived from the warrior goddess, Ishtar, who is the Babylonian version of Venus, worshiped by the Ninevites. She is Venus infernal. The evil influence of Venus. Jadis refers to Charn, her city, as ‘that great city,’ which is an echo of God’s final word to Jonah, “should I not pity Nineveh, that great city (Jonah 4:11). Lewis describes Venus’ ability to bewitch worlds with her beauty, which is what Jadis does.

In contrast to the Venus Infernal, is celestial Venus, who stands second only to Jupiter, and she rejoices in her secondary status. She is naturally oriented alongside, and finds fulfillment in company with the king of the gods. This is something potently depicted by Jane’s submission to Mark in That Hideous Strength. In The Magician’s Nephew its most prominently displayed in the abundant creation of Narnia.

Venus being a goddess of beauty and sexuality means she is associated with fertility and creation. Which is precisely what we see in The Magician’s Nephew. The Creation of Narnia. Alongside this we see Aslan creating Narnia with the beauty of song, Digory says Aslan’s voice was beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it. One of the first commands given by Aslan to this new creation is ‘Love.’ Venus is the planet of love,

Venus is the morning star. Peter refers to Christ as the Morning Star (2 Peter 1:19), and Jesus himself refers to himself as the Morning Star in John’s Apocalypse. Revelation 22:16. Isaiah also refers to Lucifer as the Morning Star (Isaiah 14:12). So, the Bible also depicts Venus as both ultimate evil and ultimate Good. In the Weight of Glory, one of Lewis’ greatest writings, technically a sermon, he talks about the Morning Star, and that in Revelation we are told that God will one day give us the Morning Star. And he adds, “For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star…then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy.”

Saturn and The Last Battle

Saturn is the god of time in Roman mythology. He is known as Chronos among the ancient Greeks. He is associated with old age, disaster, and death, among other things. Taken rightly he can bring about godly sorrow, penitential wisdom and contemplative insight. The mythological character Father Time with his scythe is based on earlier depictions of Saturn. Which is who we see in The Last Battle. Father Time wakes up from his sleep and ends the world.

Saturn is also associated with the mythical golden age. A kind of paradise. In Virgil’s Aeneid we read:

The great procession of the ages begins anew.

Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns,

and the new child is sent down from high heaven. (Fourth Eclogue)

These lines were understood in the Middle Ages as a pagan prophecy of the birth of Christ. Dante views them this way in his Purgatorio (XXII: 64-73).

In this sense, we can see Saturnine donegality in The Last Battle. That the golden age of Narnia has come after the last battle, which is the Narnian version of heaven.

On the darker end of the spectrum of Saturnine influence is the fact that every single character with whom the story opens is killed off by the end. Most of the story is one disaster after another.

Emeth, the Calormene soldier that we see in Narnian heaven later on is said to be a seventh son. Tirian, similarly is the seventh in descent from King Rilian. Saturn is the seventh planet.

Ward says, “Perhaps the most direct theological message of The Last Battle is that death is not the worst thing that can happen; rather, ‘noble death is a treasure that no one is too poor to buy.’…Tirian and his company learn that it is sweet and fitting to die for their country.” (p. 206)

There is so much more to say, but this has been long. I don’t remember if Ward discusses this, but of course the stable in The Last Battle is a symbol of Christ coming into the world, and of course He came into the world to save it, and He saved it by dying for it. And so for us Christians, death is not the end of the story, but we have the hope of Jovial resurrection to life.

This is just a sampling of the treasures found in this book. I’ve always loved Lewis’ work, but reading this book has caused me to have an even greater appreciation and admiration and respect for Lewis. Great book. Highly recommend.