Written on Summer 2021. Published for a dear friend.
Before He came into the world
The sages tried to describe the Way:
The Way that all things must follow, and man if he chooses.
Not having seen Him, but only His traces,
The sages could only speak in dim verses and riddles.
Some things they did know, even from His traces
As He passed silently, invisibly through the canyons.
What was this Course that all things followed?
No thing existed for itself.
Each thing humbly, patiently fulfilled its designation, without thinking,
Without possessing, or rebelling, or complaining,
or laying blame, or taking credit, or seeking honor.
In this way, the roaring ocean and mighty wind were as meek as the still pond. One thing dies, without thinking, that others maylive.
A seed falls to the ground and dies,
And from it comes a tree bearing fruit and more seeds beyond counting.
If the seed is preserved whole, nothing will come from it.
Only if it dies will it give life.
This is the Way, the Pattern that all things follow,
Knew the Ancient Sage.
This is how we can describe the Way,
For what the Way does, the Way is.
Thus, said the Ancient Sage,
«There must be an Original Principle of all things
Which reveals the mother of all things.
Having found the mother, we know the child;
Knowing the child, we then observe the mother».
For does not the vessel, crafted harmoniously, speak of the artist?
If all things that are made follow the Way,
Does not the Maker of things follow it, also?
(Christ the Eternal Tao, Hieromonk Damascene, Valaam books, 2012)
“Out of the silent plantet” by C.S. Lewis is a book of inestimable importance to our modern world. It speaks loud and direct to us, modern humans, who have forgotten what it means to be a human being. We, in our concrete jungles, perpetually stimulated by various diversions, atomized and radically separated from the true order of reality can profit enormously from pondering on the many profound intuitions Lewis succesfully delivers in his work, and, with God’s help, we may return to that perennial participation in the “cosmic dance”, the Tao, the way every man must tread if he wants to fulfill the purpose for which he was born. For we’ve been lied to: there is not randomness, but order; not absurdity, but meaning; we don’t define, we submit. Lewis knew this, and remembered the modern world of this fundamental principle of reality, the “Logos” of the greeks, analogous to the “Tao” of the chinese. For the sages of old could perceive glimpses in creation of the Creator, until He decided to join his creation, to unite the dust of the earth to His eternal majesty, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14)
The story we are discussing is one of wonder, of coming in touch with reality, of waking up the senses from their long letarghy. It features the character of Elwin Ransom, a british philologist. As such, he is a member of the 20th century european Academia: skeptic, career-centered and without faith (although he has a fundamental trait that distinguishes him from the average, we will ponder about it later). He is on a walking tour through some part of England when he suddenly gets kidnapped and taken to another planet as, let’s say, a propiciatory victim to some apparently bloodthirsty aliens. He suffers this felony from an ultra intelligent and mad scientist called Weston, and his partner, the ambicious world-seeking libertine Devine.
There are many insights of philosophical and theological significance to remark in the first book of C.S. Lewis “Cosmic Trilogy”, but the one that strucked me most profoundly was the psychological development of the human characters: Ransom, Weston, and Devine. The gradual unfolding parts from the fundamental principles they hold, which govern the way they interact with the world and with his fellow human beings, as well as the existential ends they pursue. These principles are implicit in all their actions, thoughts, and perceptions and only with the novel’s progress they unfold in all its clarity for us to notice. The external behavior reveals them fully. It is in this sense that one cannot help from the very beginning but to note that the roads taken, and things valued by the characters are radically different, even antithetical.
After a first reading what most prominently strikes as unexpected is the relationships of the characters upon arriving on Malacandra. It would be expected that the three humans, at the prospect of facing unknown, apparently monstrous extraterrestrial beings, would tightly bound, insofar as they share the same species and background. But the opposite is the case: they progressively grow apart of each other, to the point of eventually becoming utterly unintelligible to one another. It is an odd situation. The three are British, belong to the same social class and share a common education. From the outside, one could hardly say that they differ at all. But they do, in a fundamental level.
The crucial way in which these members of the same species lay infinitely apart is a matter of attitude of heart. Consider the person of Elwin Ransom. The author gives us a few hints of his character that in a first read may pass unnoticed. To begin with, we are told that he is a pilgrim: he is on the lookout, on the move towards something. We know then that at a priori he is willing to get out of his comfort zone for the pursue of something greater. Also, we are told he is a pious man. Some trace of belief remains in him, or at least the minimal necessary for a reception of deeper transcendental knowledge to happen. Far is he from being an obstinate denier of Christian Revelation. From his reflection upon suicide, we can say he holds for certain three fundamental truths of natural religion: the immortality of the soul, the existence of one God, and the objectivity of the moral law. We cannot say the same about Weston and Devine. The former assertively denies the Christian God, and the latter in practice does so.
The first illustration that expresses this breach in perception (apart from the obvious one between people that kidnap and those who do not) happens in the first moments inside the spaceship, when Ransom looks out his window for the first time into the celestial region. The other two call it merely space, or do not call it at all, as they are totally indifferent to anything other than the idol they have resolved to adore -be it progress or pleasure. But the philologist is genuinely shocked, and the parting away of the characters begins at once.
Ransom’s realization about the richness and liveliness of the universe is of deep significance. His whole being is shaken with its beauty; he realizes he misunderstood its true nature all his life. “The very name space seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam.” (OSP p. 34)
The contrast is telling even more so as the other two remain unmoved by the movement of the spheres. This twofold reaction is revealing of a deeper, underlying reality of the state of their personalities. In one side Ransom is receptive of the magnificent; on the other, Weston and Devine are buffered, closed irremediably to transcendence. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mt 11:15)
The cause of such a divergence, as we have said, lies in an attitude of the heart. The adequate attitude is defined by the grounding of the self in a perennial pattern of behavior, thought and action that is given and not defined by any particular human reason. That way of wisdom is the Tao. It consists of a set of principles both of practical and theoretical reason that are prerequisites for any knowledge whatsoever and for the justification of moral action. The Tao constitutes our very humanness, and to deny it is to incur in suicide of thought. That is why the refusal to participate in it blinds our eyes more than they already are and lock us up inside the confines of our finite minds. In this context, the ultimate Either/Or is set before every human being to choose. There is no middle ground here, no spectrum nor graduation of assent. C.S Lewis laid it explicitly: Either we are rational spirit obliged forever to Tao or mere nature to be shaped by masters (AM p. 28). Because the Tao will not force itself upon us. But its denial brings catastrophic consequences to the human soul. The moment we step out of it, truth as such ceases to exist, and therefore what meant an objectively fulfilling life in this divinely established realm, namely, contemplating first principles and conforming our souls to them, is gone. Meaning disappears, and the pursuit of pleasure is all that is left, and in such state of nature where no right or wrong exist the powerful will inevitably try to seize as much pleasure for themselves as possible, subduing the lesser men. Those are the logical consequences of scientificism, even though Weston’s cannot see through his phony optimism.
It is in this fundamental fashion that for the soul conformed to reality, “the heavens which declare the glory [of God]” (OSP p.34) become a point of entry to a deeper metaphysical reality. Ransom does not quite finish the sentence, and it is significant that he did not do so. He is not yet actively in the presence of the Living God, but he stands at the doors and is about to knock. Ransom can perceive because, even though slightly at first but then gradually augmenting, he is rooted in the Tao: he accepts the pattern of how to live and has rectitude of heart. His presuppositions are sane. And those are the only things required for attaining the Fullness of Truth.
When Ransom surrenders himself to the splendor of spheres, and is piously grateful to them, he is unknowingly enacting the medieval model conception of Nature as created, God’s viceregent under the moon, made through the Logos and pointing irremediably to Him (DI p. 39). Her subjects, Devine, and Weston, have been stimulated by rebel angels, disobeyed her, and become unnatural. They cannot see but materialist, pantheistic, or Manichean definitions of nature; all equally unnatural.
At this point, the philologist begins to partake in the cosmic dance of stars and celestial bodies. We watch ‘the spectacle of the celestial dance’ from its outskirts. Our highest privilege is to imitate it in such measure as we can” (DI p.58). As long as we conform to this universal pattern powered by Love our hearts will find joy and peace, for we were made to partake in it.
Ransom could see the beauty and admire it, for his contemplative gaze could rest in it for its own sake. Neither Devine nor Weston could do so. The former was only interested in the gold. And for the latter’s rationalistic mindset nature is not a window for anything, for there is nothing that sustains it or gives meaning to it. Mere sense experience exhausts reality.
And it is worth considering to what extent pride has blinded these unnatural men. They think they are seizing nature but, paradoxically, falling away from the Tao, it is Nature that has cast them away from its sight, even though they do not realize. Having the single objective and binding pattern of behavior and value disappeared, obedience to impulse is all that is left. Nature ends up conquering Man (AM p. 31). Quite the opposite is the situation of Ransom; he does not let himself be conquered by nature: he is the wise man whose intelligence conforms to reality (AM p. 38). He surrenders to what is given and does not try to redefine it for his own convenience.
He was humble and pious; the gate to transcendence was opened to him. Oyarsa recognizes that: “You are guilty of no evil, Ransom of Thulcandra, except a little fearfulness. For that, the journey you go on is your pain, and perhaps your cure: for you must be either mad or brave before it is ended.” (OSP p. 142) Here is again the utmost existential decision formulated in other terms: after crossing the last frontier of being a decision must be made. Few are that consistent; most remain in mediocrity and do not take their assumptions to their logical consequences. Many lifetimes have been spent running and hiding from the one vera questio. But God by His mercy speeds up the process for some. Through pain, loss or being kidnaped to another planet we are taken to the brinks of Reality, and we get to realize our littleness and nonentity, as well as the vanity of created things. Suffering is a needed condition of the journey, as Oyarsa said. One does not get to a knowledge of Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life, without a knowledge of Golgotha and the Cross.
It is also written that “A man who has been in another world does not come back unchanged”. Perspective has been acquired, but nonetheless the decision lies exclusively upon us: our free will is inviolable, and we can assent to the order given and find peace or try to make our own order of reality and find only chaos. That is, either one becomes the bravest of men acknowledging that nothing can separate him from the Love who made him, or mentally breaks down as he is casted into the outside, where “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 13:42)
We happily realize with the progress of the novel that Ransom has chosen well. Returning to earth, his eyes fully opened for once, he looks out the window and realizes that “…life was waiting outside the little iron eggshell in which they rode, ready at any moment to break in, and that, if it killed them, it would kill them by excess of its vitality.”(OSP p.145) This light is the very same Light that came into the world, and which the darkened souls of those who refuse the Tao comprehended it not. What Ransom could glimpse was His mysterious and burning charity which maintains the whole cosmos in Being. And a deeper message his intuition gave him; he would eventually define it in more precise terms: To die by excess of vitality is precisely what we need to resurrect with Him to everlasting glory.
