Starlight and moonbeams

I get goosebumps whenever I read The Chronicles of Narnia.

Possible spoilers below!

Every time I read about Narnia, I find something new.

This morning, I re-read the part in The Last Battle where Narnia ends.

One of my favorite parts is in chapter 13 of The Last Battle, when the dwarfs decide they don’t want anything to do with Aslan, and believe they sit on the dirty floor in the dark stable. In reality the stable has disappeared and they sit on the grass in a heavenly sunlit meadow.

Then Tirian tries to convince the dwarfs that the dark stable is a figment of their imagination. He says:

There is no black hole, save in your own fancy, fool! Come out of it!

Lucy tries to make friends with the dwarfs, but they don’t want to listen to anyone other than themselves.

Then there’s Aslan. He’s very inspiring. He says:

They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in they cannot be taken out.

In my darkest moments, I have been one of the dwarfs. When I’m frustrated, I start behaving like Tirian. I have tried Lucy’s approach too. It might actually work, but the timing has to be right and it almost never is. In my brightest moments, I understand what Aslan means. It’s all a matter of choice.

To me, chapters 13-16 seem to describe Narnia’s transition from 3D to 4D/5D.

The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean.

When I read the book for the first time in my childhood, I didn’t quite understand what happened, and I always felt sorry for Susan, who didn’t get to join her brothers and sister in the new, real Narnia.

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My other favorite parts of The Chronicles of Narnia are:

* When Aslan sings Narnia into existence, in The Magician’s Nephew. It’s so beautiful.

* Young Caspian wanting to learn more about Narnia. I can relate, because I have always been a dreamer.

* Caspian and his crew meeting Ramandu, the retired star. This is my favorite quote:

“In our world”, said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.”
“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.”

* The part in The Silver Chair when sweet, loyal, brave Puddleglum saves Rilian, Jill and Eustace from being mind controlled by the Queen of the Underland. He says:

“One word. All you have been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

It was such an inspiration when I was a kid, and even now, when it seems like the Queen of the Underland has stepped out of the book and taken over our world as well.

Deep in my heart, I’ll always be a Narnian… I guess that’s what the goosebumps are trying to tell me.