The World of Narnia!

What do Aslan and the White Witch represent? Why Susan can’t leave? Where is Narnia?

There is such beauty in seeing the world through the eyes of a child. I’ve been facilitating a book club for tweens and our current read is Book 2 of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.lewis. Yes! We are reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) and thoroughly enjoying it!

Critics and older readers have seen Aslan and the White Witch through different point of views. Good vs Evil, Life Vs Death, Truth Vs Deception. They have also seen it through the lens of Religion, Politics and Misogyny. I believe, we see what we want to see. I see them as Warmth Vs Cold.

Aslan with the soft fur, soulful eyes, warm breath and a beating heart represents Warmth. The children feel secure and find courage in his presence.

The Witch is the exact opposite. There is no warmth left in her. The coldness in her heart makes the living freeze in terror. Her heart is frozen. In the Disney animation Frozen, the chorus at the beginning sing a song which has a line “Beware of the frozen heart” and that to me is one of the most important themes of LWW.

The three Pevensie children have a choice. They can choose between a warm heart and a cold one. Do they show mercy and save their brother or do they turn cold towards him? The same choice is individually exercised by Edmund, Peter and Lucy throughout the series.

On similar lines, Aslan can also be seen as Love and the Witch as Ego.

There is a beautiful tale of why Love dies because of Ego and that’s exactly what happens to Aslan. He sacrifices himself for the Ego of two characters. The Witch and Edmund. Since this is a magical tale and love conquers all, it does not die but rises again. Ego takes a beating. It is weakened but cannot vanish and keeps reappearing and tempting others to join its cause. Love and Ego are not just physical manifestations of Aslan and the Witch, they form a loop. One cannot exist without the other.

Wo/Man is constantly caught in this loop. This loop is the circle of life and Peter, Ed and Lu free themselves from it because they understand the delicate balance of this never-ending loop. Susan hasn’t understood it yet. She is still caught in it and therefore can’t free herself. That is why she is left behind. She is unable to transcend like the others.

It is interesting to note that the last book of the series – The Magician’s Nephew is also the first book, yet making another loop. It takes time to understand the beauty of the loop. The beginning is the end. It can only happen when we accept the fact that the author lets go of his creation and the reader accepts it.

Narnia is born and dies every day. We choose between love and ego every day and like Ed’s choice these choices have consequences. To free ourselves we have to let go of our ego.

Narnia is within us. We carry it within ourselves.

Post by Harshi

The beautiful featured picture is by Tim Alex on Unsplash