The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 119i - What if each Narnia book sings to a different planet’s tune?

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Imagine discovering a hidden music under stories you thought you knew by heart. We dive into Michael Ward’s provocative claim that each Narnia book resonates with a different planet from the medieval cosmos—Jupiter’s regal generosity, Mars’s chivalric heat, Sol’s bright clarity, Luna’s shifting enchantment, Mercury’s quicksilver wit, Venus’s fertile harmony, and Saturn’s austere ending. As we map the seven chronicles to seven heavens, we show how colours, moods, images, and character arcs create a distinct atmosphere that lingers long after the final page.

We start by sketching the medieval universe Lewis loved: concentric spheres, living meanings in the heavens, and the “music of the spheres” shaping life below the moon. With that backdrop, the correspondences snap into focus—Father Christmas as a Jovial gift-bearer, the trumpet-and-battle cadence of Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader’s eastward illumination, The Silver Chair’s green-lunar spell, Horse and His Boy’s messenger roads, The Magician’s Nephew’s singing creation, and The Last Battle’s cold sifting before a truer country. Then we tackle the pushback: Lewis’s letters about planning, the silence among the Inklings, and the charge of cherry-picking. Rather than dodge the critiques, we weigh how a hidden structure can serve story, why atmosphere might matter more than overt schema, and how the pattern may have evolved as the series grew.

Beyond the literary puzzle lies a practical payoff. Read this way, Narnia becomes a school of desire: Jupiter trains magnanimity, Mars courage under discipline, Sol clear seeing, Luna steady faith in flux, Mercury prudent speech, Venus rightly ordered love, and Saturn sober hope at the world’s edge. Whether you’re convinced or simply curious, this lens turns a nostalgic reread into a pilgrimage “further up and further in,” where myth, theology, and the old sky conspire to re-enchant attention. Sink into the conversation, test the links yourself, and tell us which planetary thread you hear most clearly.

If this sparks fresh wonder, follow the show, share it with a Lewis-loving friend, and leave a review—your words help more readers find the path back through the wardrobe.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

SPEAKER_00:

Well, welcome to the next episode of Christ Centered Cosmic Civilization. And I want to do another one about Narnia and explore this issue of the planets. Planet Narnia, Michael Ward's thesis. Because it adds a kind of richness and depth to our reading of the Narnia Chronicles. Because what if the Chronicles of Narnia were. Well, they're obviously not just a random collection of fairy tales. There's more. They're obviously a mythological telling of the tale of Genesis to Revelation of the Bible, creation, fall, providence, redemption, right through to new creation with the exploration of discipleship and the mystical path, upward path, all these things are there. So they're not just random fairy tales. But there is this possibility that there's an even another layer to them, that there's they are a carefully constructed symphony, each book tuned to the music of the medieval cosmos. And that's the claim of Michael Ward's groundbreaking thesis, Planet Narnia, which I've read that and also listened to him lecture on this subject compellingly. And Michael Ward argues that each of the seven chronicles corresponds to one of the seven planets of the medieval imagination: Jupiter, Mars, Sol, the Sun, Luna, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn. So what we want to do is explore these planetary archetypes and how they shape. Well, this is how he claim what he claims is that these seven planetary archetypes shape the atmosphere of each book, showing up in characters and imagery, and why C.S. Lewis might have chosen this hidden architecture to undergird his stories, but also why doesn't he make it more explicit or speak about it? Well, first of all, um what is this seven planets thing? Because that doesn't correspond to the way we see things in the solar system today, and the we wouldn't really think of the sun and moon as planets and all of that. So to understand uh Michael Ward's thesis, we need to step. I would I nearly said back into the medieval worldview, but for me, I think it's step onwards into the medieval worldview. For the medieval mind, the heavens uh are alive with meaning and depth and significance and just and just life and intelligence. Now the seven planets, and I have to say planets there in inverted commas, uh, that includes the sun and the moon. They're not just um physical bodies. It's not there isn't, remember, the the the medieval universe is deeply uh is not a materialistic one where the only things are material. There's there's much, much more to the Christ center cosmic civilization. So these seven planets have our spiritual influences and they shape the character of the world below. So just quickly to give us an initial appreciation of this, there's Jupiter is sort of kingliness, festivity, generosity, Mars, war, courage, chivalry, then soul, the sun is light, glory, illumination of mind, and so on. Luna, the moon is change, reflection, instability. Mercury is about communication, quickness, cleverness, Venus, love, beauty, harmony, and then Saturn is death, coldness, fate. Well, C. S. Lewis, he loved the medieval world and knew and he was a medievalist in his academic training, and he knew this cosmic view intimately. So Michael Ward argues that C. S. Lewis secretly structured the Narnia books around these seven planetary personalities. And um, yeah, so in this vision of the universe, the Earth is the center of the universe, um, and then around that move the seven planets, and then there are the stars beyond that, and in a future um podcast episode, we'll really explore that medieval universe. But this kind of model is not entirely Christian, because many features of it are actually from Ptolemy and Aristotle. It's really an Aristotelian structural view of the universe, but infused with lots and lots of Christian theology and meaning. Um, the order of the celestial bodies was determined by their perceived speed and distance from the earth. So moon is closest, and that's why we with the they had this category of what is sublunary under the moon, and then above the moon, you cross like a line with the moon, because sublunary is life on Earth, and then after the moon, the moon and beyond is Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and finally Saturn as the furthest away. So um, yeah, these let's actually zone in a little bit more now to think about the symbolism of these planets and systems. So Saturn. We'll go through them again. I I'm and think about it more. Saturn is associated with old age, like slow and melancholy, cold, dry. People influenced by Saturn were thought to be serious, patient, careful people, but um also could be given to being suspicious as well. That's Saturn. Jupiter, yeah, royalty, nobility, warm, and the cut the the the this idea of moisture as well will leave will some of these things, the humours, uh we must leave those to a future episode, but we'll come back to that. But Jupiter, people were modest, honourable, generous, so warmth, generosity, modesty, that's Jupiter. Mars, well, you know, the bringer of war, conflict, but also courage, which goes with that, hot and dry. Like whether things are dry or moist is is very, very important in this medieval universe. So Saturn is dry, Jupiter is moist, Mars is dry, um, and so people influenced by Mars are courageous and confident. Uh that's if they're in a good place, but if they become bad, it's violent and treacherous. And it's associated with the colour red, Mars. The sun is authority, power, glory. It's hot and dry. So that's a dry one. People associated with the sun are trustworthy but also ambitious. Venus is love, beauty, fertility. It is cold and moist, and associated with gardens, musicians, the color white, Mercury, that's the messenger planet, symbolizing speed, communication, intellect, and then the moon, lunar, change, and then lunacy, lunacy, like losing your mind or going out of your mind. And the idea is the cycles of the moon deeply to do with change, and then that would tap into the idea of werewolves as well, uh, and this idea of people undergoing great change under the power of the moon, and that's what lunacy is about in in the medieval world being losing your mind under the power of the moon, but also it it the moon is associated with the night, but it's linked to motherhood and has a green colour, and of course, all these symbolic qualities of the planets um are a common feature in medieval art and literature. The artists often personified the planets as um characters that with these distinct characteristics. So the sun could be depicted as a bright emperor, the moon as a mother, green in dressed in green, and Mars could be an armoured knight. Jupiter often was portrayed as a bishop, Venus as maybe a noble lady with an arrow of love, Saturn an elderly man, bearded man. And uh it's hard to because we I want to go into this in much more detail in a future series, but in cosmological diagrams, you get medieval manuscripts that feature diagrams of the universe, and there's these concentric spheres with Earth at the center, and these diagrams would include the seven planetary spheres, and then beyond that the sphere of fixed stars, and then also sometimes written into these cosmological diagrams, you get four elements of earth, water, uh, and fire. Oh, there's so much we want to say about all of that, but we we mustn't now, we must focus on this, and then um so a popular kind of idea is that you your life, particularly your career, um yeah, the profession, the career you would uh go have in life, together with personality and so on, is very influenced by what the what uh the planets influence at the time of your birth. So people born under signs that are tied up with these planets, and that what that has a big influence on the people it throughout their life, and also we'll just mention this idea of the music of the spheres, and that's was that's very widespread in medieval thinking, right across the whole the world, and that's based on this uh it there's a lot to it, but it's this idea that in the movements their orbits are creating a perfect harmony and that there is a music to that, a harmonious music. I'll leave it at that for now. We and again we will, I promise we'll come back to this in more depth. Now then, um, yeah, medieval Christian thinkers have this uh model and they adapt it and change it to fit with Christian theology, and particularly relevant to that is if you imagine this diagram with the earth at the center and these concentric circles going out, and then there's an outermost boundary which is the primum mobile, the prime mover, that's God, like God is at the is at is beyond and provides motion to the entire system of these concentric circles or spheres. Um yeah, we'll explore that in more detail later. So Earth is kind of at the center from one perspective as the special focus of God's attention, and this sublunary realm below the moon, because earth is under the moon, therefore it is subject to a great deal of change, and therefore is corruptible, and Adam with the fall, um everything under the moon is corrupt is changeable, corrupted, and because of sin and the fall, earth is very changeable in that way. Whereas the world beyond the moon, the superlunary world with the heavenly spheres, are not changeable, they're immutable and perfect, or or at least in principle so. And so, and the sun, the S U N, the Soul, has a role of kind of being very associated with the living God as the source of light and power in the universe, um and then this idea of well we'll we'll leave that for now. Um, yeah, and of course, uh we know like when with Copernicus and Galileo and the uh moving to what is actually a more biblical view of the universe, in where you have the sun at the center, and of course, Copernicus and Galileo do think of the sun as associated with the living God and heaven. But I think it's Copernicus who believed that the that heaven was inside the sun, and that's why it is so bright. Um, that in a way for them that must be the center, not Earth. And and it so it's also Copernicus and Galileo are also theologically driven, but arrive at a different model of the universe, and it it isn't necessarily incompatible with that old symbolic one, but again, that's something we'll have to leave for the time being. So now let's get into then Michael Ward's. So that's given us this huge background of a universe, which C.S. Lewis um deeply thinks about that medieval pattern of the universe. He loves it, and it does uh occur in his thinking in different ways, but the the question is is it written into the Narnia Chronicles? Well, let's let's look at the evidence. Um we'll well let's we'll walk through each of the novels and see what Michael Ward's thesis is. And the first is that the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe is associated with Jupiter. Jupiter, member, that is kingship, festivity, and joy. And so in this one, Aslan appears as the great king, restoring Narnia from winter to spring with this movement of joy, and then the coronation of the children at Ker Paravel reflects Jupiter's regal imagery. And then Aslan is the kind of jovial king, because the word jovial there is associated with Jupiter, jovial king. And then even Father Christmas appears, and he is a really classic Jupiter figure, bringer of gifts. Then um Prince Caspian is Mars. Mars is the god of war, but also chivalry and discipline, and the book is filled with battles and trumpets and restoration of true order. And Caspian himself embodies this martial, chivalrous spirit, the young warrior king. So Caspian is the Mars figure, uh, and then Trumpkin the dwarf is a kind of a martial uh figure. Okay, the voyage of the dawn treader, that is Sol, the sun. Sun represents light, illumination, revelation. The voyage eastward is a journey into the birthplace of the sun, into increasing light, culminating in the vision of Aslan's country in light. Um Eustace's transformation is a moment of illumination, intellectual illumination or spiritual illumination, and the idea is Reapercheap embodies solar courage and nobility. The Silver Chur obviously is the moon. This one is very obvious in that way, the moon associated with change, instability, and the underworld. And the book the book is filled with darkness, caves, enchantment, shifting realities, change. The Lady of the Green Kirtle uses lunar deception to cloud the children's minds. And and being gring green is also classically medieval associated with the moon. And um the characters, Puddleglum with his melancholy realism, reflects lunar instability, but also the lunar faithfulness, that faithful witness idea. So of all of them, this one really does seem very strong. Um the the link to Luna, the moon here. Uh, the horse and his boy, Mercury, again, yeah. I mean, it's a story about journey, journeys. It's all about journeys, the horse and his boy, and Mercury is the god of travellers, messengers, and speech. And of course, these two speaking horses are huge in that. So it's a tale of journeys, disguises, clever escapes. Um, and then Shasta, who is core, is a messenger who brings warning of invasion. So, yeah, Bree Aravis embody mercurial wit and adaptability. This is Michael Ward's argument. The magician's nephew is associated with Venus in this thesis. Venus, the planet of love, beauty, and fertility. And so the creation of Narnia is suffused with beauty and harmony. The garden with the apple tree echoes Eden, and that's this venue like a Venus-based image of love being tested. Diggory's temptation is framed in terms of love for his mother. Um, Aslan's song, you could argue, is a Venusian harmony. Then the last battle, Saturn. Saturn is the planet of death, coldness, and endings. The books filled with deception, despair, the collapse of Narnia. But Saturn also points to transcendence beyond death. But also, Saturn, when it's in a bad phase, is to do with corruption and foolishness. And so shift the ape embodies Saturn's corruption, puzzle the donkey reflects the Saturn's folly, foolishness. Um, and then the faithful Narnians endure Saturn's trial before entering the true country. Okay, that's the thesis from Michael Ward. Uh why would why would uh C.S. Lewis do this? Uh Well, Michael Ward argues that Lewis wanted to give each book a distinct atmosphere, a flavour, a tone, a spiritual resonance that kind of suffuses each book with a kind of overall ambience. Now, C.S. Lewis never explained this, but he left it hidden. This is Michael Ward's thesis, that it was left hidden like a secret music beneath the surface. But once you see it, the chronicles take on a new depth. Jupiter gives the war line the witch in the wardrobe its festive joy. Mars gives Prince Caspian martial discipline. Sol gives Dawn Treader radiant illumination. Luna gives Silver Chur its melancholy darkness. Mercury gives Horse and His Boy quick silver pace. Venus gives Magician's nephew. Beauty and harmony, and Saturn gives last battle, its sombre finality. Now, what do we make of this? Well, I like it. I like it. I'm kind of convinced by it, but I I like Med the medieval imagery. I am deep, deeply into so much of this. But there have been people, there has been a lot of criticism, or some criticism of this planet Narnia thesis. For example, some critics find it suspicious that C.S. Lewis never mentioned this elaborate plan to anyone, even his closest friends, even like Tolkien and Barfield and so on, uh his um inklings at the pub. And surely after he'd had a pint or two, wouldn't he, wouldn't he have shared with Tolkien, surely, or or maybe he only did verbally and Tolkien never bothered recording it, but it um it's odd that something that would that would be so deep and complex and require a lot of forward planning and so and a lot of effort would not be mentioned to anybody. Michael Ward accounts for this by arguing that Lewis was a secretive person who believed in hiding deeply buried elements within his work. I can I kinda can buy that though, because um I know I I I will do that sort of thing myself, work on something and have elements within it that I don't explain explicitly or tell anybody that I'm doing it, it's something I'm working on and developing in my own mind, and then I don't know, I I can imagine that. That does make sense. Um a more serious problem is perhaps this that C.S. Lewis himself stated in a letter that the series was not planned beforehand, and he didn't know he would write more books after the first. And this does seem to directly contradict Michael Ward's argument that the whole thing is is a deeply planned structure, uh, and the whole thing was intended from start to finish to have seven in it. I mean, it could be the case that um he he gave, say, Lion the Witch in the Wardrobe had the Jupiter feel to it, and that it was a kind of he he did that um just off the cuff, and then as he goes on, he begins to think, actually, I can allocate something, you know, one of the planets to each of these stories, and it doesn't necessarily have had to have been deeply planned in advance, but that's quite powerful that Lewis says he didn't pre-plan any of it. Uh, another um uh challenge to Michael Ward is that this planet Narnia thesis is almost non-falsifiable because the idea is Lewis never mentioned it to anybody, and uh there's no evidence, no explicit evidence for it. So how is it possible to prove or disprove? His own Lewis's own words contradict it, and then the explanation is that's not a problem, because he it's like almost like a conspiracy theory argument that the lack of evidence isn't or the or or even statements to the contrary uh don't seem to be a problem for it. And and and some have argued that uh Michael Ward cherry picks evidence in the sense that it he is carefully selects features of each novel which line up with the planetary symbolism, colours, mood, harmonies, and so on. But it you could uh select different features of each of the novels and end up with very different things. Like why it's like he arb it he looks through the novel and finds things in the novel in the novels that uh correspond to what he hopes to find there kind of thing. So, for example, um you could argue Aslan is often described as a king in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but there's other um there's other ways that he's described or behaved, and and and certainly in other books he's kingly. So, um nevertheless, so there are criticisms of it, but nevertheless, this book, Planet Narnia, is highly regarded by many, and and I find as time goes on it kind of seems to gain more credibility, and um it has prompted a deeper examination of the Narnia books and what C.S. Lewis was doing in his creative process, and and at the minimum I find it a kind of usefully enriching perspective to have while you read these books, and that it kind of offers these tantalizing possibilities, even if you don't agree with the thesis, I still find it um beneficial. Okay, why does it matter this kind of thing? I I like it because it it C.S. Lewis is again, we know he's not just telling these little stories, he's crafting a mythic cosmos, baptizing the amid the imagination, re-enchanting the world, and not then just with biblical themes, but with this richness of the medieval vision of the heavens. And I like this sort of a perspective because it kind of reminds us that the gospel is cosmic, it's a Christ centered cosmic civilization we're dealing with, and this just adds to that flavor with the the Narnia Chronicles, and Christ is not just saviour of individuals but king of the cosmos, the heavens declare his glory. The planets sing his praise. And this then then it's as if reading the Narnia Chronicles is more than entertainment but a spiritual exercise to let the atmosphere of each book shape us, let Jupiter's joy, Mars courage, Soul's light, Luna's perseverance, Mercury's wit, Venus's love, and Satan's Saturn's stability form us as disciples. So that's the invitation. If you're gonna read all the Chronicles again with the planets in mind, maybe look out for these features and at the very least appreciate that C.S. Lewis is not just telling stories but weaving this cosmic vision in which every planet, every story, every image points to the true king, the lion, Aslan, Christ the King, who is not safe but good. So as we said last time, it's the 75th anniversary. Uh the wardrobe door is still open, and uh we can still uh we're still invited into this world. Well, the thing is, let's face it, we don't need to travel to the land of Narnia. What we're invited is to come into the cosmic kingdom of Christ the King by trusting on him, calling on him. And this world we're in is the most magical, wonderful, meaning rich that there can ever be.