Out of all the tales and adventures told throughout The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is one detail near the end of the tale that sticks with me; the moment when Caspian finally wises up and recognizes that he ought not follow Reepacheep to the end of the world on to Aslan's Country.
The event is him seeing Aslan in the gold lion's head. He saw Aslan through this image and the experience was enough for him to do a complete reversal of his previous thinking.
Obviously, the gold lion head was NOT Aslan, yet Aslan was somehow present in that moment to convince Caspian the error in his thinking.
This scenario as it played out is not the stuff of pure fiction. This can really happen in our world. I'm convinced of it. I think of the bronze serpent that cured the Israelites in the desert as a Biblical example.
I do think the power of belief is very powerful and in the fictional example, Caspian was at odds with what he thought was the ultimate goal: being with Aslan in Aslan's Country - right then, right there. Yet, he was in crisis and I believe prayed. That prayer was answered in an unexpected way, through the image of the gold lion.
I believe that in our world, the same manifestation is possible through the power of belief. But do not misunderstand, the power is not through the image itself. The power is just as it is expressed in the story. Caspian was touched by Aslan himself, even though through it was through the image of the gold lion on the Dawn Treader.
Join date: Feb. 19, 2004
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...Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity,...with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1-2)
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Posted : December 15, 2017 9:06 am
Interestingly—and seasonally!—that detail has always made me think of that scene from A Christmas Carol where the doorknocker transforms before Ebenezer Scrooge's eyes. While Aslan is of course nothing like the tormented ghost of Jacob Marley, I think there is a little bit of similarity in the beholders of the transforming objects: with Caspian in his temper and Ebenezer with his cold-hearted greed, they both are treading on dangerous ground spiritually. In The Silver Chair, too, the dream where Jill realizes with horror that she has ignored and forgotten Aslan's instructions begins with a giant toy horse rolling towards her before transforming into Aslan. I think there's something rather awful, in the archaic sense of the word, about an object that comes to life.
Posted : December 16, 2017 8:50 am