An inkling of magic

How much did Jack know?

Gareth Knight is a Christian esotericist of long standing. He is currently associated with the Society of Inner Light, associated with Dion Fortune. “The Magical World of the Inklings” is Knight's study of C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien, Charles Williams and Owen Barfield. The book is uneven, but then, it *is* difficult to write an elaborate analysis of these four giants of literature and spirituality.

For obvious reasons, Knight concentrates on the esoteric dimensions of the “Oxford Christians” (as they are sometimes called). The esoteric influence is most obvious in Barfield, a lifelong Anthroposophist and admirer of Rudolf Steiner, with Williams as the runner up, due to his involvement in A E Waite's offshoot of the Golden Dawn. However, Knight argues that even the fairly orthodox Christians Lewis and Tolkien were at the very least influenced by esotericism. Since both “esotericism” and “Christianity” are fairly broad terms, this isn't really surprising, but it may be dismaying for those who try to claim Lewis and Tolkien for some kind of main-stream evangelical Christianity.

The most interesting chapter deals with Lewis. Knight argues that Lewis' writings (except the popular apologetic works) are so imbued with occultism, that somebody with a detailed knowledge of the Western mystery tradition might well assume that Lewis was an initiate attempting to drape his esoteric message in Christian language! While Knight doesn't doubt Lewis' Anglican Christianity, he nevertheless argues that the Hermetic and pagan traits found in Lewis' works aren't simply literary devices (although, of course, they are that as well). He believes that Lewis was drawn to esotericism, perhaps at a subconscious level, while nevertheless also being deeply suspicious about many of its concrete manifestations. Lewis studied occultism in his pre-Christian days, conferred with Barfield (whose Anthroposophy can be seen as an esoteric form of Christianity) and was fascinated by the personality and ideas of Charles Williams (who never left the Golden Dawn very far behind). At the same time, Lewis for some time also believed that a friend of his was driven mad by dabbling in occultism, and he certainly didn't dabble in it himself. Knight's ultimate conclusion is that Lewis did believe in a Hermetic or Neo-Platonist worldview, where the cosmos is filled with countless of spiritual sub-creators, but he didn't believe that Christians should be too interested in them, instead directing their worship and obedience to the true God and his Son.

Once you accept this, many “esoteric” traits in Lewis' output are easily spotted. Venus plays a central role in his space trilogy as the unspoiled sister world of Earth. Each planet is ruled by an angel or planetary spirit, called Oyarsa. Ransom travels to Venus in a coffin, an implement often used in initiatory rituals into esoteric orders. Ransom's secret society in “That Hideous Strength” use white magic to counter the black magic of NICE. They awaken Merlin (a “Christian” magician) and make the planetary spirits appear one by one (compare astrology, etc). In "The Chronicles of Narnia", Prince Caspian and his explorers meet a magician who turns out to be a solar or stellar Logos, who even reincarnates. Caspian's ship sails through a dangerous "astral" sea, which Knight likens to the Abyss on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. Less easily spotted are themes perhaps inspired by Barfield, as when the consciousness of a person makes the same phenomenon appear as either threatening or benign, depending on spiritual perspective (Ransom and the insect at Venus). Knight's most startling claim is that the initial encounter between Merlin and Ransom in “That Hideous Strength”, when the Celtic magician asks the space traveler a number of extremely cryptic questions, isn't a sheer product of Lewis' imagination. Quite the contrary, he is describing an authentic secret ritual known only to a few British occultists, presumably from one of the Golden Dawn groups! I haven't seen this potentially sensational claim anywhere else.

Less sensationally, Knight believes that the method of the Inklings was “magical”. They all believed in the power of creative imagination, and saw it not as mere fancy, but as a technique to access a higher spiritual reality. Theoretically, this was elaborated upon by Barfield in his comments on Coleridge. Practically, this was the method Lewis and Tolkien used when they were writing their fiction. They entered into a kind of meditative state, in which ideas and pictures would freely enter their minds, as if propelled by an outside force. I found this interesting, since it explains Tolkien's claim that he wrote “Lord of the Rings” under divine inspiration and that the story was in some sense “true” – claims which seem almost literally insane unless put in context. No matter what you think Jack and Tolkien “really” saw during their magical spells, it's also interesting that so much pagan-esoteric material emerged from their subconscious (or the Overmind). Jung might have been impressed…

I haven't read literally all of “The Magical World of the Inklings”. The book tends to get tedious at times, as Knight obsessively mines every possible esoteric nugget even in lesser known or posthumously published stories of the four writers. As already mentioned, Barfield (who only wrote a few fiction stories) can be seen as the unofficial theoretician of the group, while Williams' literary output was truly “esoteric” and hardly even comprehensible to his friends, Lewis and Tolkien being the great popularizers (perhaps despite themselves) of the Western inner tradition. But yes, Knight is interesting and he does make a lot of intuitive sense. Somehow, both the space trilogy and “Lord of the Rings” become more comprehensible and even logical, if the esoteric angle is taken into account (alongside all the others!).