S3E6 – Bonus – "Introduction to The Narnia Code"

Matt and I didn’t manage to get together to record this week, so I thought I’d do a solo episode today. Last month I was on the Talking Beasts podcast discussing Dr. Michael Ward’s The Narnia Code and therefore thought it would make a good subject for today’s episode.

S2E6: “Introduction to The Narnia Code” (Download)

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Timestamps

00:56Drink-of-the-week
01:09Quote-of-the-week
21:10Last Call and clip from “Talking Beasts”
24:00Closing remarks

YouTube Version

Show Notes

• I explained that Matt and I didn’t manage to get together to record this week, so I thought I’d do a solo episode about The Narnia Code.

• The quote-of-the-week was from Scripture:

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. – Psalm 109

Psalm 19

• My drink-of-the-week was tea.

• The Narnia Code is the popular book written by Dr. Michael Ward. This is a more popular version of his scholarly work, Planet Narnia. It was also turned into a documentary.

• Dr. Ward refers to The Chronicles of Narnia as “The Narnia”, which I rather like.

• Why is Father Christmas in Narnia? Why has the Narniad endured?

• Dr. Ward’s thesis is that Lewis modelled his chronicles on the seven heavens of the medieval cosmos:

Jupiter – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Mars – Prince Caspian
Sun – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Moon – The Silver Chair
Mercury – The Horse and His Boy
Venus – The Magician’s Nephew
Saturn – The Last Battle

Lewis claimed that the seven heavens were “spiritual symbols of permanent value”.

Lewis described Jupiter as “cheerful and festive; those born under Jupiter are apt to be loud-voiced and red-faced”

• To get an idea of what Lewis did, I encourage listeners to listen to these two pieces from Holst’s The Planets: Jupiter and Mars. Each have their own feel and personality.

• I spoke about the different senses of Scripture which were greatly emphasized during Medieval Times: literal, moral, allegorical and anagogical. Lewis was steeped in this medieval culture so it seems natural that his books would have several levels of meaning.

• In a letter to his life-long friend, Arthur Greeves, he wrote “As is proper in romance, the inner meaning is carefully hidden.”

• I suggest that Lewis uses Narnia in the same way that Aslan uses it:

“It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?” “But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan. “Are -are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund. “I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

• I include a clip from my appearance on The Talking Beast podcast.

Posted in Podcast Episode, Season 3 and tagged , .

After working as a Software Engineer in England for several years, David moved to the United States in 2008, where he settled in San Diego. Then, in 2020 he married his wife, Marie, and moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Together they have a son, Alexander, who is adamant that Narnia should be read publication order.