[...] as an aside, I can't but wonder under what aegis an "official" C.S. Lewis website has been created. Hasn't Lewis been dead for more than half a century? Isn't it presumptuous of anyone running the website to claim to have some "official" capacity as far as preserving his works or his memory or his opinions? Perhaps the keepers of the "official" website retain some copyrights or other legal rights to Lewis's works, but I (at least) don't recognize their authority (except that it allows them to make money from Lewis's works). IN any event, the fact that these "officials" seem hostile to Ward's theory simply mirrors what I'm seeing on this board, and once again, I don't understand the motive.

I looked at the Home page of the site to see who is running it, and later found that this information is also found at the bottom of the article:
Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. All Rights Reserved
I would say they definitely (at least currently) retain some legal rights to Lewis's works. (And it does let them make money from his works, as they produce the items to make money from.)

I disagree, though, that they seem hostile to Ward's theory. They offer "original work on and about C. S. Lewis from scholars who have written far and wide about his stories, his theology, and his world" (from the "About" text on the blog). They haven't got only Devin Brown's article, but also a review of Planet Narnia by Charlie Starr ( https://www.cslewis.com/a-review-of-the-narnia-code/ ), who is far more positive to the book.

p.s. Being an opinionated sort, I don't call the Narnia books "the Chronicles" because they were never so identified until after Lewis's death. Besides, they are not "Chronicles" which refers to "a register of event in order of time." However, "chronicle" is derived from "Cronus" (Saturn) so anyone who does refer to the series as "The Chronicles' is (unwittingly?) supporting the notion of an astrological connection.

From Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper's biography about Lewis, while telling about the writing of The Silver Chair:

[...] there was much discussion about the titles of the stories. (Green christened the whole series The Chronicles of Narnia, on the analogy of Andrew Lang's Chronicles of Pantouflia, and the name stuck.)

Green was heavily involved in reading the manuscripts and suggesting changes, and also in suggesting book titles. So even though it doesn't say at what time he came up with the name for the series, I feel that he is well qualified to have an opinion about it, and I'm not surprised that the publishers used his idea.

(It wouldnt even surprise me if the suggestion came up during the discussion of titles for what became The Silver Chair, where Green mentions it in the biography, and while Lewis was still writing the books - but I don't know about any evidence for or against it.)

I agree that they are not "Chronicles" in the sense you mention. I don't know the Chronicles of Pantouflia (My Own Fairy Book: Namely, Certain Chronicles of Pantouflia, As Notably the Adventures of Prigio, Prince of That Country, and of His Son, Ricardo, with an Excerpt from the Annals of Scotland, As Touching Ker of Fairnilee, His Sojourn with the Queen of Faery), but judging from the 1895 title they seem to have been the same kind of random choices from "historical chronicles" as the Narnian ones are.

To Coracle: I finally understand your point, which was illuminated by the Devin Brown article to which you linked. Thanks for offering it, although, as an aside, I can't but wonder under what aegis an "official" C.S. Lewis website has been created. Hasn't Lewis been dead for more than half a century? Isn't it presumptuous of anyone running the website to claim to have some "official" capacity as far as preserving his works or his memory or his opinions? Perhaps the keepers of the "official" website retain some copyrights or other legal rights to Lewis's works, but I (at least) don't recognize their authority (except that it allows them to make money from Lewis's works). IN any event, the fact that these "officials" seem hostile to Ward's theory simply mirrors what I'm seeing on this board, and once again, I don't understand the motive.

As far as Brown's essay is concerned, I find it unpersuasive.
How could Lewis (the scholar and critic) possibly have been unaware of the astrological connections between the Narnia books and the Planets, given these undisputed facts. Since he wrote one entire series of novels based on astrology, isn't it likely that it influenced another?
.......
I'll grant the point (made by both Lewis and Brown) that trying to reconstruct an author's motives and methods in writing a novel is risky. But seeing the connection between the Planets and the books of the Narniad is fun, useful in enhancing understanding, and meaningful as a form of criticism.

p.s. Being an opinionated sort, I don't call the Narnia books "the Chronicles" because they were never so identified until after Lewis's death. Besides, they are not "Chronicles" which refers to "a register of event in order of time." However, "chronicle" is derived from "Cronus" (Saturn) so anyone who does refer to the series as "The Chronicles' is (unwittingly?) supporting the notion of an astrological connection.

Thank you for your reply. Varnafinde has addressed the issue of the website (run by HarperCollins with authority but not a lot of time lately, I suspect) better than I might have done. There was a podcast fairly recently on NarniaWeb, which you may like to listen to; I think the comments section on it is still open.

"an opinionated sort"? Well, you seem to be very well read, and have come to your conclusions after careful thought.

Perhaps one reason that I (and maybe others) want to err on the side of caution in this, is that for me 'astrology' is bound up with horoscopes, the cheap newspaper ones and the sort that people pay good money to have cast for them.
I cannot see Jack Lewis as a man who would have a bar of it! This creates a bias for me, but as you see, I love his work; I have no difficulty in enjoying the Oyarses of the Space Trilogy, and the worldview that Lewis shared with his readers over ten years before he wrote the first Narnia story. I love the Narnia stories - even though I came to them late in my teens while reading English at University - and enjoy all the mythological elements in them.

I'm interested to read your connection of Chronicles with Saturn. I had always seen it as based on the Greek word 'chronos', as per this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos

Thanks for an interesting new look at things! I look forward to seeing more posts about your areas of interest in Lewis and Narnia.

UPDATE: I planned to look up Paul Ford's book, Companion to Narnia, on this, and have now done so. He mentions in his introduction, "The series was christened The Chronicles of Narnia in 1952 by Lewis's dear friend Roger Lancelyn Green, in an analogy with Andrew Lang's Chronicles of Pantouflia"

Thanks, Varnafinde. I'd never visited the "official" site before, so I was leaping to conclusions about it's antipathy for Ward based on insufficient evidence.

When was Green's title first seen in print (I wonder). I've been a Narnia fan since the 1960s (when I was a wee bairn), and my memory is that nobody called them "Chronicles" back then (my mother probably read the Narnias to me right about the time Lewis died). But maybe I'm wrong.

By the way, neither Ward nor I claim one must understand the astrological influences on each book to appreciate the series, or to understand it. Obviously, millions of people (young and old) loved the series before Ward proposed his theory, just as millions loved Emily Bronte's poems before Elizabeth Ratchford discovered that they were written by characters in the Brontes' childhood games (Emily wrote them for the characters, of course).

Thanks for this topic. I heard about the book and corresponding astronomy/astrology theories several times, but at the time I was thinking about it as more general biblical references. I'm more interested in astrology now, even signed up for some online courses (here's the link, if you're interested: https://clearastrology.com/planetary-influence/), so it's high time for me I grab Ward's book as well. I should also check out his website, I believe, before commenting on the topic.

I wonder what C. S. Lewis would have thought of Carl Sagan’s views. Sagan didn’t think highly of astrology or those who supported it. In his book Cosmos he said that our lives shouldn’t be ruled by it, and it didn’t matter that much which constellations the sun or the planets were in. I would tend to agree with him.  I thought Dr. Michael Ward was going a bit too far in Planet Narnia, which I read a few years ago. Didn’t he make connections with Narnia and astrology?  I didn’t like his saying that the Dawn Treader movie was a disaster either, and he is far too opinionated for my taste. His opinions seem too conjectural.  If Lewis were living today I doubt if he would approve of Michael Ward’s views on Narnia.  Why do people place trust in something that is mainly nonsense and hasn’t been proved scientifically?  

Astrology seems like something too pagan to admire or place your trust in.  It is true that Lewis had some admiration for pagan gods and their mythology, but he didn’t think that astrology should rule our lives. I think Lewis and Sagan would have agreed on astrology as being something that we should avoid even though Lewis was a Christian and Sagan was not.  Both of them were very intelligent people, and their ideas were worth considering, although they often held opposing views.

Posted by: @narnian78

In his book Cosmos he said that our lives shouldn’t be ruled by it, and it didn’t matter that much which constellations the sun or the planets were in. I would tend to agree with him.

Yes indeed!  I think Steven R. Lawhead said something like, “… those who trust in the sun, moon and stars - they trust blindly.”  I do not think our lives are guided in any way by the positions of the stars or planets, whether at the time of our birth or after.

Posted by: @narnian78

I thought Dr. Michael Ward was going a bit too far in Planet Narnia, which I read a few years ago. Didn’t he make connections with Narnia and astrology?

I read Planet Narnia a few months ago.  He does not affirm astrology (if you mean horoscopes or anything related to that). If you mean, does Dr. Michael Ward think that the Chronicles of Narnia make reference to the seven planets - which were considered gods in ancient Greek, Roman and Norse mythology - then yes, he is making connections between Narnia and Ancient Astrology, though he is not recommending it as a religious practice.

I know some people do not like the theory because it assumes that C. S. Lewis may have made references to the Seven Planets in ancient astrology. As I understand it, the use of the seven planets in medieval writing was fairly common.

Having said that, the only reference I could find to some genuinely Christian literature in this era that made reference to the seven planets is Dante Alighieri's ‘Paradiso’ in “The Divine Comedy”. This work makes reference to all of the seven heavens.  (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradiso_(Dante) )

The other references I saw all sound a bit dodgy.  (E.G. Michael Scotus was an ordained Priest who was also an astrologer and the court scientist to the Roman Emperor Frederick II in Sicily.  Looking at what is said about him, he sounds like he was more astrologer and less Catholic Priest.)  There are others, but honestly I found these to be all equally questionable.

C. S. Lewis studied Medieval literature and wrote a poem about the seven planets.  He said:

"In order to avoid misunderstanding, I must say that the subject of the following poem was not chosen under the influence of any antiquarian fancy that a medieval meter demanded medieval matter, but because the characters of the planets as conceived by medieval astrology, seemed to me to have a permanent value as spiritual symbols, which is especially worthwhile in our own generation. Of Saturn we know more than enough, but who does not need to be reminded of Jove, Jupiter." – C.S. Lewis, “The Planets”

Someone online (not sure who, it could be Michael Ward for all I know) summed it up as:

Because he believed that beauty and truth can and should be considered as distinct realities in a given thing, Lewis affirmed the “superior” beauty of certain pagan beliefs and myths while upholding Christianity as the true religion.

Thus, the idea seems to be that the pagan symbols are being used as aesthetic dressings to deliver the story.  As such, it seems to me that Lewis could communicate ideas through his books with a Christian worldview while clothing them in pagan, cosmological dress.

I thought Michael Ward’s analysis of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawntreader and The Magician's Nephew were quite compelling and provided a helpful insight into the books. When I read his analysis of The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle, I did not really buy into his analysis. Given his theory needs to work for all seven books, I cannot really subscribe to it whole heartedly.  Like you, he seems to me to have gone too far.

Posted by: @narnian78

 I didn’t like his saying that the Dawn Treader movie was a disaster either, and he is far too opinionated for my taste.

I know what you mean.  I did not enjoy the Waldon ‘The Voyage of the Dawntreader’ movie, (it just was not to my taste – it took too many liberties from the book in my opinion).  But people worked very hard making it with a lot of passion and genuine desire to represent the book and please the end audience.  Critiquing it as an objectively bad movie does seem harsh.  I remember him also saying that the creators of Prince Caspian did not really understand that book either.  (C. S. Lewis’s step son, Douglas Gresham was listed as a co-producer on all three Waldon movies.  Doug was a fan of Narnia before he knew C. S. Lewis and talked with his step father about the books.  I would feel uncomfortable saying that he did not understand the books).  I think Micahel Ward is passionate about Narnia and expresses his views bluntly because of that enthusiasm.  He comes across as a nice person from what I have seen, but some of his comments are very strong.

Posted by: @narnian78

It is true that Lewis had some admiration for pagan gods and their mythology, but he didn’t think that astrology should rule our lives.

To be fair, I do not think Michael Ward thinks that astrology should rule our lives either.

@davidd 

I am glad to hear that Dr. Ward has not affirmed that we accept astrology as ruling our lives. I still remember not liking his book Planet Narnia.  I thought he was reading things into the Chronicles things that are not really there. Making connections of the stories with astrology may be reading too much into them.  The conjecture method doesn’t work for me.  I much prefer Dr. Peter Schakel’s books not only because he was my former professor in college, but Dr. Schakel seemed to offer only interpretations of what was already there.  I am somewhat biased having known the man, but I think he may have been a better Lewis scholar.  At least I trust him more because I think that he was more faithful to what Lewis actually said.  His book was The Way Into Narnia in case if you want to read it.