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Volume 6 Number 4 Article 7

10-15-1979

Guardaci Ben: The Visionary Woman in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of and

Nancy-Lou Patterson

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Recommended Citation Patterson, Nancy-Lou (1979) "Guardaci Ben: The Visionary Woman in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia and That Hideous Strength," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 6 : No. 4 , Article 7. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss4/7

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm

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Abstract Examines the characters of visionary women—what Esther Harding calls the femme inspiratrice—in Lewis’s fiction. Part one focuses on Jane in That Hideous Strength. Part two focuses on Lucy in .

Additional Keywords Lewis, C.S.—Characters—; Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia; Seers, female; Thadara Ottobris

This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss4/7 Guardaci Ben:The Visionary Woman InC.S. Lewis' Chronicles Of NarniaAnd That Hideous Strength

Nancy-Lou Patterson Part Two

Lucy Pevensie is the seeress of the Narnian Chronicles, ("She's just making up a story for fun") (Ibid.) the wardrobe as Jane Studdock is the seeress of That Hideous Strength. in terior. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first of the seven tales of Narnia, Lucy's first visit to Narnia begins Then everyone looked in and pulled the coats inside an old wardrobe, with a sensation of touch and sound: apart; and they all saw—Lucy herself saw—a per­ "she noticed that there was something crunching under her fectly ordinary wardrobe. [Ibid.) feet." 15 Then, "she felt ["with her hands"] something soft and powdery and extremely cold." And, "rubbing against Lucy's name means "light," and the light meant is her face and hands was . . . something hard and rough." that which is symbolised by the torches carried in the Vision begins when she is "a step or two" across the boundary Eleusinian mysteries, the light of inspiration or visionary between the worlds: "And then she saw that there was a experience. Lucy is called after a saint who made a sacri­ light ahead of her ..." (Ib id .) fice of the eyes her lover had adored, in order to dedicate herself wholly to Christ. St. Lucy's symbol is a pair of Looking back, she sees her own world: "It seemed to eyes, and her feast falls in December and is in fact associated be still daylight there." (p. 6) In the world inside the with the light symbolism of the Winter Solstice season, for wardrobe, Narnia, it is night, but there is a light there, in Sweden little girls or young women wearing a crown of a lamp-post. By its mysterious [and, we learn in The lighted candles represent the "Lucia Bride" or "Bride of Magician’s Nephew, organic) illumination, Lucy meets her Light." first Narnia, Tumnus the . This masculine being functions as her guide, an animus figure, and leads her Lucy's first experience of Narnia is mediated through into the forest and to his cave, where he offers her tea, light. When Edmund, a few days later, stumbles into sardines, toast, honey and cake, and regales her with tales Narnia, he too "saw a light." (p. 21) But for him the light of Narnian life. "He had a strange, but pleasant little comes from "a pale blue sky" where the sun is "just rising, face with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of very red and clear." (p. 22) His eyes show him a different the hair there stuck two horns." We have already seen the being from the one encountered by Lucy: "There swept into beardedness of the animus figures for Lewis. The repast sight a sledge drawn by two reindeer." (p. 23) The image Lucy shares with Mr. Tumnus—"a wonderful tea"—in his is reiterated: "The sledge was a fine sight as it came sweeping cave, is reminiscent of the pomegranate, the fruit eaten toward Edmund." (p. 24) It bears the Jadis, by Persephone in Hades which confined her there for half a malignant anima or female guide for Edmund, and she a year in the perpetual round of Winter and Summer; it had sweeps him away on her sledge (she has a attendant), been plucked from a tree which "grew in the garden of the offering him her own sort of feast: "a jewelled cup of king of the underworld."16 This slight suggestion of the something that steamed" and "several pounds of underworld motif appears later in the series, as will be the best Turkish Delight . . . sweet and light to the very seen. The lamp-light in which Lucy's first encounter with centre." (Ibid) This food Lewis describes as frankly Narnia and the Narnians is bathed, is related to a symbolic addictive. Later on, Edmund meets Lucy in the wood, and system with an Eleusinian colouring—the Eleusinian mysteries after their return to England, Edmund denies his vision, celebrated the myth of Persephone. Robert A. Johnson to Lucy's great distress. w rites o f The next visit to Narnia takes all four children the light-bearing capacity of women. In the Eleusinian through the wardrobe door, and again, as Susan says, "It's mysteries, the women often carry torches, which shed getting lighter-over there." (p. 43) "All four children a peculiarly feminine kind of light. A torch softly stood blinking in the daylight of a winter day." (p. 44) lights up the immediate surroundings, shows the This time they find Tumnus' cave ransacked and a notice practical next step to be taken. (Johnson, Op. Cit., proclaiming the rule of "Jadis, Queen of Narnia." But p . 27) another guide discloses himself, to Lucy, first: "Lucy said, 'Look! There's a robin, with such a red breast. It's the In Lucy's return to England from Narnia, she runs first bird I've seen here.' " (p. 48) from lamp-post back to daylight, where she stands panting, "I'm here. I've come back." (Lewis, Op. Cit., p. 17) The The robin, of whom Lewis says, "You couldn't have returned visionary meets a doubting reception and is pro- found a robin with a redder breast or a brighter eye,' plays mounced "batty" by her brother Edmund and "silly" by her a role which is typical of that attributed to birds in folk­ sister Susan, (pp. 18, 19) To prove her point she shows lore. A similar figure is seen in a children's novel popular the doubters, along with her more tolerant brother Peter during Lewis' childhood. The Secret Garden, by Frances

20 Hodgson Burnett. In searching for a garden which has been appears at last, the children were speechless "when they closed for ten years, a little girl, Mary Lennox, "saw a saw him," and, abashed by his "overwhelming eyes," bird with a bright red breast sitting on the topmost branch they "couldn't look at him." Not surprisingly, then, the of one of [the trees of the garden.]"17 A few chapters later culminating vision of resurrected is expressed in the the robin shows her first the key and then the door to the same terms. garden which gives the book its name. The robins in Britain are brighter-breasted than the larger, somewhat This visionary pattern recurs in : tum bled rusty-breasted robins of North America. from a railway platform into "such a woodsy place that branches were sticking into them" "They all rubbed their eyes," and Lucy's robin leads the Pevensies to their encounter Peter exclaims, "I can't see a yard in all these trees."18 with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, and thus well into their Narnian Working out of the thicket, "Everything became much brighter," adventures. The spell o f endless winter which th e s e lf- and they are on the shores of the sea. The first chapter proclaimed Queen-witch has cast over Narnia is to be contains a series of sightings by Lucy—" 'Look!' said Lucy broken by the coming of Aslan, Narnia's true Lord. He is suddenly, 'What's that?' " and it proves to be a stream of preceded in his coming by another sledge-rider, Father fresh water. (Ibid, p . 6) Christmas, "a huge man in a bright red robe [bright as holly-berries)." (Lewis, Op. Cit., p. 86) Lewis remarks, "I say!" exclaimed Lucy, "I do believe that's "though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see an apple tree." pictures of them . . . even in our world—the world on this It was. (p. 8) side of the wardrobe door." (Ibid.) "But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different." Thus food is provided. Again.

The coming of Aslan is experienced by three of the "And what's that?" said Lucy, pointing ahead. four Pevensie children at once (Edmund having absented "By Jove, it's a wall," said Peter, (p. 9) himself), "and this is what they saw." (p. 101) “They were on a green open space from which you could look down When the enclosure is entered, "they all blinked because on the forest spreading as far as one could see in every the daylight became suddenly much brighter." (Ibid.) direction— . . . far to the East, was something twinkling and moving." (Ibid.) In the midst of the field, before This introductory sequence prefigures a central moment "a wonderful pavilion," "Aslan stood." His companions in the book, one which concerns Lucy in particular. The are described in detail, "But as for Aslan himself, the first eight chapters of the novel take place on an island Beavers and the children didn't know what to do or say off the shore of Narnia, where the dwarf tells when they saw him." (p. 103) Most clear to them was the the story of Prince Caspian's childhood. Chapter VIII is sight of "the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and "How they Left the Island." Chapter IX is entitled, "What then they found they couldn't look at him." Lucy Saw ."

Aslan becomes the liberator of Narnia and the saviour The tired children are asleep on the Narnian mainland: of Edmund: he gives his life in place of the boy. After all but Lucy. the death of the Lion, Lucy and Susan lie in an exhausted calm : She knew that one of the best ways of getting to sleep is to stop trying, so she opened her eyes. Through But at last Lucy noticed two other things. One a gap in the bracken and branches above she could was that the sky on the East side of the hill was a just see a patch of water in the creek and the sky little less dark than it had been an hour ago. (p. 129) above it. Then, with a thrill of memory, she saw again, after all those years, the bright Narnian stars, (p. 95) At the exact moment of dawn, when "The rising of the sun had made everything look so different" (p. 131) they see the risen Asian: In the moonlight, the forest begins to come to life. "Lucy's eyes began to grow accustomed to the light, and she saw There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they the trees that were nearest her more distinctly." As in had seen him b e fo r e, sh a k in g h is mane . . . stood her first entry into Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and the Aslan himself. (Ibid.) Wardrobe, her vision occurs at night. Erich Neumann writes, "over and over again we find this mantic woman The preceding material is a compendium of references connected with the symbols of caldron and cave, of night to sight and to light. Lucy sees the lamp-light of Narnia and moon." (Neumann, Op. Cit., p. 296) Esther Harding and the sunlight of earth; Edmund sees the red sun of says that the goddess of prophecy is manifested in moonlight Narnian dawn; the sledge of Jadis is "a fine sight;" the and rain. She points out that "The ancients knew no inner Pevensie children together see Narnia "getting lighter;" the or psychological realm, to them the inner world was con­ robin has "a brighter eye' " Father Christmas, a picture in ceived of as the underworld, the spirit realm, the place our world, is "really *' seen in Narnia; and when Aslan where all spirit things d w e lt." And, "Thus the Underworld

21 Queen is mistress of all that lives in the hidden parts of of Lucy's guest room. With a gilded prow "shaped like the the psyche, in the unconscious as we should say." This head of a dragon" "she is such a very Narnian ship," same lady, as moon goddess, is styled "Giver of Visions," says Lucy—and when Eustace questions her preference, she Harding says. (Harding, Op. Cit., p . 114) sa y s

Lucy calls on the forest to waken fully, but the moment "I like it because the ship looks as if it was really passes: "Lucy had the feeling . . . that she had just moving. And the water looks as if it was really wet. missed something." (Lewis, Op. Cit., p . 97) S h e falls And the waves look as if they were really going up asleep, waking to "a grey twilight (for the sun had not and down." (Ibid., p. 5) risen)." (p. 98) The children continue their journey, a hard, irritating trip. Then, suddenly: And with that "The things in the picture were moving" (p. 6) and the children are drawn into Narnia again, to the aid of "Look! Look! Look!" cried Lucy. a now-adult Prince Caspian. On board the Dawn Treader, as "Where? What?" asked everyone. the ship proves to be, Lucy renews her old acquaintance "The Lion," said Lucy. "Aslan himself. Didn't you with , the valiant mouse whose quest for Aslan's see?" Her face had changed completely and her eyes country forms a major element in the novel. Despite an sh on e. early set-to with Eustace, Reepicheep becomes his best "Do you really mean—" began Peter. companion when the disagreeable boy turns into a dragon. "Where did you think you saw him?" asked Susan. In his altered state Eustace sees Aslan coming to him in the "Don't talk like a grown-up," said Lucy, stamping moonlight, and is restored to his former shape, much im­ her foot. "I didn't think I saw him. I saw him." (pp. proved in personality. He thinks he has dreamed, but the 103-04) others assure him of the reality of his experience. This time, Edmund takes her part. But the others disagree, and Peter exercises his authority as , and the party goes on in spite of Lucy's vision. Needless to say, the trip Lucy is given one vision in this novel, in the Magician goes badly and in the end many weary steps have to be 's house, where, fearfully climbing to the second retraced and the children sleep again. Again, too, Lucy floor, she tiptoes along the hall past a series of doors. is called at night. After about the sixth door she got her first Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can real fright. For one second she felt almost certain imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked that a wicked little bearded face had popped out of best in the world had been calling her name . . . She the wall and made a grimace at her. She forced her­ was looking straight up at the Narnian moon, which is self to stop and look at it. And it was not a face at larger than ou rs . . . all. It was a little mirror just the size and shape of "Lucy," came the call again . . . The moon was her own face, with hair on the top of it and a beard so bright that the whole> forest landscape around her hanging down from it, so that when you looked in was almost as clear as day, though it looked wilder. the mirror your own face fitted into the hair and (pp. 113-14) beard and it looked as if they belonged to you. "I just caught my own reflection with the tail of my eye Under this superbly mantic moon, the forest indeed awakens, as I went past," said Lucy to herself. "That was all "And then—oh joy! For He was there; the huge Lion, it was. It's quite harmless." But she didn't like shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow the look of her own face with that hair and beard, underneath him." (p. 115) After a rapturous but admonitory and went on. (p. 124) greeting, Aslan sends her back to waken the others, a diffi­ cult task. She finally arouses Edmund: Lewis, as narrator, remarks, "(I don't know what the Bearded Glass was for because I am not a magician.)" But one might "Aslan!" said Edmund, jumping up. "Hurray! hazard that the magician (an animus figure) and his house Where! " represent yet another revelation for Lucy, this time of her Lucy turned back to where she could see the own self. The little bearded—that is, masculine—image is Lion, waiting, his patient eyes fixed upon her. Lucy's perception of her own animus. She is going upstairs "There," she said, pointing. in a house dominated by male knowledge and power, seeking "Where?" asked Edmund again. for the magician's book, by which she hopes to wield that "There. There. Don't you see? Just this side power to make the magician and all in his house and lands of the trees." become visible. At the moment, the magician is invisible: Edmund stared hard for a while and then said, Erich Neumann says, "The spiritual aspect of the uncon­ "No. There's nothing there. You've got dazzled and scious confronts women as an invisibly stimulating, fructifying, muddled with the moonlight. One does, you know. and inspiring male spirit." (Newmann, Op. Cit., p. 294) I thought I saw something for a moment myself. It's The Bearded Glass is an image of this disquieting intention. only an optical what-do-you-call-it." And Lucy does find the book. It contains a host of spells, "I can see him all the time," said Lucy. One, "to make beautiful her that uttereth it" (Lewis Op. Cit., "He's looking straight at us." p. 127) shows Lucy pictures erf-herself in a state of dazzling "Then w hy can't I see him?" beauty, power, and prestige—and in the midst, the fact of "He said you mightn't be able to." Aslan appears in warning. "He was growling and you could "Why?" see most of his teeth." (p. 128) She is saved, then from "I don't know. That's what he said." the temptation to absolute power. Again, "she came to a spell "Oh bother it all," said Edmund. "I do wish which would let you know what your friends thought about you wouldn't keep on seeing things. But I suppose you." This time she yields, says the spell, and "as nothing we'll have to wake the others." (pp. 120-21) happened she began looking at the picture," (p. 129) and of course she finds out what her friends think and is sorry at Thus aroused, and following Lucy as she heeds Aslan's what she learns. Another spell shows her beautiful pictures direction, they make their way. One by one the others see "for the refreshment of the spirit;" (p. 130) a story "about their true guide: Edmund first, then Peter, and finally, a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill," (p. 131) which we would like to be able to read ourselves. At last "Lucy," said Susan in a very small voice. she finds the spell she is seeking. It is "A Spell to make "Yes?" said Lucy. hidden things visible. " (Ibid.) She has sought this spell "I se e him now . I'm so r r y ." to make the invisible inhabitants of the magician's island "That's all right." (p. 126) visible again. Emma Jung points up the role the magician plays for Lucy: "For the more exacting woman, the animus Lucy's visionary role continues in The Voyage of figure is a man who accomplishes deeds, in the sense that he the Dawn Treader. She and Edmund are visiting Eustace directs his power toward something of great significance." Scrubbs, when they see "a picture of a ship"19 on the wall (Jung, Op. Cit. , p . 3)

22 The words said, Lucy hears a sound of "soft, heavy is given an encounter with Aslan but it is a terrible footfalls," (Lewis, Op. Cit., ) and turns, her face "almost one, for she is dealt deep scratches in recompense for a as beautiful as the other Lucy in the picture" (Ibid., p . 132 whipping she had caused her servant girl to suffer when she to see "Aslan himself, the Lion, the highest of all High Kings." first started out for Narnia. Afterwards Aravis is recovering in the enclosure of the Hermit of the Southern March, when by "Oh, Asian," said she, "it was kind of you to looking into a pool he (an animus figure with a long white com e." beard) reveals to Aravis and all that is happening to "I have been here ail the time," said he, "but , now become Price Cor. At the end, Aslan comes you have just made me visible." leaping into the enclosure; Hwin goes to him immediately, "Aslan!" said Lucy almost a little reproachfully, full of trust, and the repentant Aravis learns who has wounded "Don't make fun of me. As if anything I could do would her, and is forgiven. make you visible! " "It did," said Aslan. "Do you think I wouldn't In The Magician's Nephew, the girl is Polly; she is the obey my own rules?" (Ibid.) friend of Digory, in whose house the wardrobe leading to Narnia is one day to stand. Polly finds Digory crying, and At the same time, the Dufflepuds have been made visible he shows her his secret playroom under the eaves of a garret. along with their master, the magician Coriakin. With a candle they set out to explore because it occurs to Polly that they "could get into the other houses" of the row.23 The novel continues its account of the voyage, And they do. They find a door, and "Polly's curiosity got which concludes with the supernal vision, for Reepicheep, the better of her. She blew out her candle and stepped out Eustace, and Lucy have "the privilege of seeing the last into the strange room.: (Ibid., p. 9) It is the room of Digory's things." (p. 180) As usual Lucy sees the most—" 'Look,1 Uncle Andrew, a would-be magician. The old man tricks she said," and it is the sea people, so beautiful the sailors them into serving as subjects for his latest experiment. And cannot be allowed to see them. Again, " 'Look!' said Lucy, it is PoIIywho is sent by this maladroit animus figure into who was in the stern of the boat. She held up her wet arms another world, or rather, into "The ," full of white petals and broad flat leaves," and they are in (p. 25) When Digory is sent after her, they go together the Lily Lake, the Silver Sea. Reepicheep's coracle runs up into , where despite Polly's warnings, Digory awakens the final wave of this ultimate sea, and Lucy and Eustace the witch Jadis, who is for him, as for Edmund in The Lion, reach the shore of Aslan's country, where they see a lamb "so the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a malign anima figure. She white on the gree grass that even with their eagles' eyes follows the children back to England where she is more than they could hardly look at it." (p. 207) The Lamb becomes a match for Uncle Andrew. Through the magician's fault, Aslan, "scattering light from his mane," (Ibid.) who sen d s both pairs find their way into Narnia, along with a horse and them back to England, where he has "another name," by which cabby; there they witness the creation of Narnia by Aslan. they are to learn to know him, for they are now too old to In a sense the "Fall" of Narnia has already occurred, and is return to Narnia. the result of proceeding (against warnings) by two male figures, Digory and Uncle Andrew. Aslan sends Digory and Polly flying on the newly-winged cabhorse to a sacred There are four more Narnian books, however. In The garden, where they obtain an apple by which Digory's mother it is who first sees Aslan. She has Silver Chair, is cured of an otherwise fatal illness, and we learn how the already seen the edge of a terrible cliff, over which Eustace lamp-post was planted in Narnia: it grew in the supernaturally has fallen. "Some huge, brightly coloured animal"20 rushes fertile soil of its newly-created earth from a fragment the to blow the falling boy safely down into Narnia. "So she witch has brought with her from England. turned and looked at the creature. It was a lion." (Ibid., p. 13) Aslan sends her after Eustace to look for a series of In help comes to Prince from signs which lead, when correctly recognized, to Prince England when he sees the seven friends of Narnia—those who , hidden in the Narnian underworld. Jill is thus made have been transported there at one time or another—gathered the guide for her companions, including the around a table: and in a moment Eustace and Jill come to his Marshwiggle. aid. Again Jill plays a role as guide—"It was Jill who set them right again: she had been an excellent Guide in The underground journey is suggested in That Hideous England."2,( "And of course she knew her Narnian stars Strength as Jane twice enters the souterraine or underground perfectly, having travelled so much in the wild Northern passage to Merlin's tomb: in , as John D. L ands." (Ibid.) She wins the admiration of Tirian for her Cox has pointed out in his sensitive essay, "Epistemological skills. Jill leads Tirian to the brink of a hill within sight Release in The Silver Chair, " the journey to the Underworld of a stable in which the false Aslan (an ass in lion's clothing) is the major theme.21 In making this journey, Jill is the is h id in g. leader. Psyche makes the same journey in the original myth "Well done," said Tirian to Jill. She had shown of Eros and Psyche: in We the underground Till Have Faces him exactly what he needed to know. journey is described as Orual experiences it, for she too is They got up and Tirian now took the lead. (p. 59) Psyche, and she is also Ungit; Ungit is the Mother Goddess, Aphrodite/Venus, and one recalls that the Goddess Inanna Later in the novel, all the former child visitors to Narnia, now visited the Underworld at the behest of Her sister, its its everlasting Kings and Queens, reappear to Tirian. Lucy goddess/ruler, Ereshkigal, and that the Goddess Demeter's is among them. "Lucy led the way and soon they could all daughter, Persephone, rules there for half of every year. see the dwarfs." (p. 135) The dwarfs, unlike the seeress In fact, Persephone offers Psyche food when she travels Lucy, are blinded. That is, they cannot, or will not, see there in her turn, and Psyche, in order to return, refuses. the salvation offered them. (Johnson, Op. Cit., p. 64) The pomegranate was the food which, eaten by Persephone, confined her for half a year "Are you blind?" said Tirian. to Hades. (Kerenyi, Op. Cit., p . 134) "Ain't we all blind in the dark!" said Diggle. "But it isn't dark, you poor stupid Dwarfs," said T h ere is a girl in , Aravis, who Lucy. "Can't you see? Look up! Look round! accompanies Shasta, the novel's hero. She too becomes the Can't you see the sky and the trees and the flowers? guide, not because she has seen a vision, but because her Can't you see me? horse (a mare) knows the way. Shasta and Aravis are drawn together on a moonlit night—"the moonlight, astonishingly But it is no use. Just in that moment, "A brightness flashed bright, showed up everything almost as if it were broad behind them. All turned. Tirian turned last because he day,"22 by the roars of a lion who was afraid. There stood his heart's desire, huge and real, is ultimately revealed to be Aslan. We have already noted the golden Lion, Aslan himself." (p. 137) Yet even Aslan the tendency of Aslan to be manifested by moonlight. Aravis cannot make the dwarfs see what they will not. rides Hwin, a talking mare who is a native of Narnia. Hwin is humble, but wise, and she aids her humans, and the The visionary role of Lucy is repeated in the final stallion who is Shasta's mount, in disguising themselves episode of the novel and of the Narnian Chronicles as a to pass through the city of Tashbaan on the way to Narnia. s e r ie s :

23 "I see," she said at last, thoughtfully. "I see 9 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New York: Modern Library, now. This garden is like the Stable. It is far bigger n.d. [originally published 1897]), p. 390. inside than it was outside." (p. 170) 10 Erich Neum ann, The Great Mother, Bollingen Series XLVII And a g a in : (Princeton, N.Y.: Princeton University Press, 1 955), p . 295. "I see," she said. "This is still Narnia . . . I see . . . world within world, Narnia within Narnia 11 C. S. Lewis, Till We Have F aces (New York: Harcourt, . . .25 Brace and Company, 1 956), p. 172.

And finally: 12 R obert A . Joh n son , She: Understanding Feminine Psychology (New York: Perennial Library, Harper and And Lucy looked this way and that and soon Row, 1976/1977), p. 67. found that a new and beautiful thing had happened to her. Whatever she looked at, however, far away it 13 Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, With Letters by might be, once she had fixed her eyes steadily on it, C. S. Lewis (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1 977), became quite clear and close as if she were looking p. 209: abbreviations in original, based upon calligraphic through a telescope." (Ibid.) practices characteristic of Lewis.

She sees the whole of Narnia laid out and now eternally 14 Nancy-Lou Patterson, "The Host of Heaven: Astrological linked to Aslan's Country. and Other Images of Divinity in the of C. S. Lewis," a paper read before Mythcon VIII, The annual . . . she at once cried out, "Peter! Edmund! Come conference of the Mythopoeic Society, San Diego, and look! come quickly." and they came and looked, California, 1977, to appear in a forthcoming issue of for their eyes also had become like hers. [Ibid.) Mythlore.

One is reminded of Beatrice, who said to Dante on the out­ 15 C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe skirts of Paradise, "Guardaci ben: ben sem, ben sem Beatrice" (New York: Macmillan, 1950), p. 5. ("Look on us well; we are indeed, we are Beatrice,"28 but who, in Paradise itself, fades from his view, leaving him to 16 C. Kerenyi, Eleusis, Archetypal Image of Mother and contemplate the beatific vision directly, having guided him Daughter (New York: Bollingen Foundation/Pantheon there from afar since her first salute as a child in Florence. Books, 1967), p. 134. Lucy's companions no longer see through a glass darkly, but face to face, for they see Aslan as He is: 17 Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden (New Y ork : J. B. Lippincott Co., 1938/1949 [one of many reprints]), And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a p . 37. lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.27 18 C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian (New York: Macmillan, 1951), p. 3. Jane Studdock, the reluctant dreamer whose visions lead her to the presence of Cod, in her turn leads her husband 19 C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (New Y ork: Mark to salvation. Lucy, the mystical visionary; Jill, the Macmillan, 1952), p. 4. perceptive guide; Aravis, the valiant warrior-maiden; and Polly, the befriender and companion; all these too both find 20 C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (New York: Macmillan, the ultimate source and goal of all vision and lead others to 1 953), p. 12. Him. He whom they envision is Himself their light. The conception of the visionary woman thus finds its ultimate 21 John D. Cox, "Epistemological Release in The Silver expression in the Godhead, for in Kabbalistic mysticism, C hair," The Longing for a Form, Peter J. Schakel, the light of Cod—his glory, the Shekhinah—is feminine.28 editor (Kent State, Ohio: Kent State University These profound mysteries are implied in the Psalmist's Press, 1 977), p. 163. phrase: "In thy light shall we see light."25 22 C . S . L ew is, The Horse and His Boy (New York: Macmillan, 1954), p. 22.

FOOTNOTES 23 C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew (New York: Macmillan, 1955), p. 6. 1 C. C. Jung, "Anima and Animus," Two Essays in Anal­ ytical Psychology (New York: Meridian/World Publishing, 24 C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York: Macmillan, 195671957 I Bollinger, 1953]), pp. 198-199. 1 956), p. 57. Lewis means a Girl Guide, as Girl Scouts are called in Britain (and Canada). 2 John Dean, Blind Ambition (New York: Pocket Book, 1977 [Simon and Schuster, 1976]), p. 213. 25 Ibid., p. 171: the second and third ellipses are in the o rig in a l. 3 Irene Claremont de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology (New York: Harper and Row, 1973/ 26 Dante Alighieri, II Purgatorio, XXX :73, The Divine Harper Colophon Edition, 1974), p. 67. Comedy, translated by Dorothy L. Sayers, (Harmons- worth: Penguin, 1 955). 4 M. E sth er H ard in g, The Way of All Women (New York: Harper and Row, 1970/Colophon Edition, 1 975), p. 26. 27 Lewis (1956), p. 173

5 C. S. Lewis, "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best 28 Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism What's To Be Said," (London: Geoffrey (New York: Schocken Books, 1961), see especially Bles, 1 966), p. 36. pp. 225-230. Scholem remarks that Kabbalism was a doctrine for and by men, lacking the women mystics 6 C. S. Lewis, "On three ways of writing for children," such as Mechthild of Madgeburg, Juliana of Norwich, Of Other Worlds (London: Goeffrey Bles, 1 966), p. 32. and Theresa de Jesus who are so characteristic of Christianity. [Ibid., p . 37). 7 C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (London: The Bodley Head, 1945), p. 10. 29 Psalm 3 6:9, The Book of Common Prayer. The Jerusalem Bible has "by your light we see the light," and the 8 Emma J u n g , "On th e N ature o f th e A nim us," Animus and King James version, for once, agrees with the Prayer Anima (Zurich: Spring Publications, 1957/1972), p. 12. B ook.

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