WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:11.439 Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom 2 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:15.199 on the past between primary secondary worlds. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, 3 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:16.399 and I'm glad that you're here. 4 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:23.519 Hey there, welcome back. Today. 5 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:26.039 We're going to be continuing our Lewis study with Out 6 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:28.800 of the Silent Planet. We're gonna talk some more medieval 7 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.719 cosmology and background, and we're also gonna obviously get into 8 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:34.759 the story itself and so be finding brought over you. 9 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:37.240 If you've never read this book, Out of the Side 10 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:39.880 on the Planet, you've never read the Ransom series. I 11 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:42.960 very very strongly recommend it. I feel like it's really 12 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:48.159 been gaining a broad scale popularity lately, especially in Lewis 13 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:51.280 and in adjacent circles, and for a good reason. And 14 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:55.359 there's there's so much, so many important things that are happening. 15 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:59.799 Hold on, let me turn down. I'm on a baby 16 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:00.880 sound machine duty here. 17 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:02.240 Let me turn that down, all right. 18 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:07.200 Yeah, there's just so much in these books that is 19 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:12.439 very applicable to our world today. It's very Lewis just 20 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:16.040 a great job of dealing with things that were happening 21 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:18.760 in his own age that I've only widened out as 22 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:22.400 they've moved downstream to the current era, not that Lewis 23 00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:24.879 is it was really that long ago, all things considered, right, 24 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:27.439 He's a fairly modern writer, but at the same time 25 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.680 keeps writing about things that are only beginning to develop 26 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:35.439 to the extent that they have today. And more of 27 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:37.640 that will become evident as we go through this series, 28 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.280 and so I'll be well beginning to that. But before 29 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:42.680 we do so, I do want to give us a 30 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:45.560 quick plug for the other Mythic Mind things we have 31 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.680 gone on here. Over on the Mythic Mind Movies and 32 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.920 Shows podcast, we're continuing with the Star Wars series. We 33 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:54.599 just recently wrapped up the original trilogy with Return of 34 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.400 the Jedi, So head over to the Mythic Mind Movies 35 00:01:57.400 --> 00:01:59.599 and Shows podcast to catch upon that and to get 36 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:01.920 ready for the prequels that are coming up. And then 37 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.840 over on Mythic Mind Games, we just began a two 38 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:08.280 parter on the Legend of Zelda, and so already you 39 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:13.159 can find our kind of broad level conversation about Zelda. 40 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.360 And then next week, well we'll have the second part 41 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:20.240 of that, which is an interview with an expert on 42 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:24.199 the subject, and that episode is actually already available on Patreon, 43 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:26.439 and so you can check that out right now. Speaking 44 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:28.280 of which, if you like what we do in Mythic 45 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.080 Mind and you like to get all episodes of everything 46 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.520 that we're do, we delivered into one podcast feed early 47 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:35.639 in ad free, become a patron at any level over 48 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.360 at patreon dot com slash mythic Mind. Of course, higher 49 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.719 levels of support will provide you with more benefits, more content, 50 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:45.280 but even just five dollars a month provides you with 51 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.599 all Mythic Mind episodes across the three podcast one feed 52 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:50.960 in ad free. And so you can head over to 53 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.680 patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind. But for now, let's 54 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:56.199 go ahead and jump to it with Out of the 55 00:02:56.199 --> 00:03:30.840 Silent Planet. Hello, and welcome back. As we get ready 56 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:34.039 for Out of the Silent Planet. Like I said before, 57 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.680 my goal in this is not to do a chapter 58 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:40.360 by chapter deep dive analysis. We simply don't have the 59 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:43.759 time to do that. But what I'm just said going 60 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:46.520 to do is I'm going to focus on some key 61 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.360 developments in the story to really give you this sense 62 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:54.400 of theme, the sense of mood, to equip you with 63 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:58.159 some tools for getting more out of the story yourself. 64 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:01.199 And then I'm particularly going to save some of the 65 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:07.400 really deep philosophical conversations in the story for our live meetings, 66 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:09.719 and so I don't think I'm skipping over that entirely. 67 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.759 I do have some plans for that. But before we 68 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:14.639 even get to out of the sidelent planet, I want 69 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.360 to actually do a little bit more build up. I 70 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.639 cut short a little bit previously when I was going 71 00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:23.680 over medieval cosmology, kind of the old view of the cosmos, 72 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:26.000 and that's because I didn't want to give you too 73 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.000 much of a map to what Lewis is doing. You know, 74 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.720 I didn't want for you to say, oh, the Eldala 75 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:37.040 fit nicely into this medieval category. Oh, Yarsa fits nicely 76 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:40.000 into this category. No, I wanted there to be some 77 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.199 mystery there. I wanted for you to explore some things 78 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:44.399 on your own if you are reading this for the 79 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:47.040 first time. But now that you've been through that, I 80 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.000 do want to give you some of those categories that 81 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:54.959 we can talk about what these strange beings are and 82 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.399 kind of how they fit within the bigger picture. And 83 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:00.920 so let's return to medieval cosmol and go a little 84 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:04.480 bit deeper there, all right, So, looking again at the 85 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:06.879 medieval view of the cosmos, and I really like this 86 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:10.720 image here. And so we have the Earth here at 87 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:13.399 the center, and then we have the elements, which we'll 88 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:17.680 talk about moving out to fire here this reddish orange circle, 89 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:21.680 because fire, of course is the lightest, most ethereal of 90 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:24.519 the elements. And so once you move past that, well, 91 00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:27.720 now we get the planetary sphere, starting with the moon 92 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:31.920 and then moving outward, and eventually you get to the 93 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:36.920 edge here, which then approaches the realm of God, where 94 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:40.279 we have God ruling and raining, and we have the 95 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:45.720 entire cosmos moving in an ordered spherical motion and imitation 96 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:50.680 of the perfect fully actualized goodness of God. And so 97 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:54.439 we have a very structured, a very orderly view of 98 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.639 the cosmos. We really get this sense when you look 99 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:01.439 at the medieval philosophers, the medieval theologe, that there is 100 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:06.480 this unending goodness, that there is this luminosity in the 101 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:11.240 very fibers of being, that existence is fundamentally good and 102 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:17.519 ordered and purposeful in reflection of the good order and 103 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:21.720 the true purpose, the true end of all things, which 104 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:26.000 is God. And so what I wouldn't necessarily call optimism, 105 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:31.000 but a philosophy of absolute hope that no matter how 106 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.639 chaotic things seem to be well this earth, where things 107 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:37.240 tend to break down, where things do tend toward corruption, 108 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:42.199 where do things do turn to disorder, we have the 109 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:46.240 sense that this is just one small little point in 110 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:49.360 a much bigger story. And the more that we identify 111 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:54.120 with this grand story, this grand spiral, this great dance, 112 00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:57.279 as C. S. Lewis calls it, in mere Christianity and elsewhere, 113 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.639 the more that we participate in the joy of the heavens, 114 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.720 the more that we find that existence itself is deeply 115 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:10.839 fundamentally and eternally significant and purposeful. And so there is 116 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:13.480 this great joy to be found here. And I think 117 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:18.120 in particular of Boethius, who I mentioned before. You know, 118 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:21.639 when he is falsely accused, he is imprisoned, he is 119 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:23.360 awaiting what would be his death. 120 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:24.600 He's able to. 121 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:29.000 Find hope and joy and peace and fulfillment simply in 122 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:34.720 resting in the perfect order that ultimately comes down from God. 123 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:37.920 And so there's a lot of purpose, a lot of 124 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.680 joy here. I may have mentioned this in one of 125 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:44.360 the previous videos, but in Discarded Image CS Lewis talks 126 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:49.600 about the difference between a modern and a medieval man 127 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:51.959 when they go out and look up at the sky. 128 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:55.199 And so maybe you've even experienced this where you go 129 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:56.959 out on a starry night and you look up in 130 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.560 the sky and you feel the sense of maybe dread, 131 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:06.160 maybe anxiety, you just feel insignificant. Lewis says that the 132 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.319 modern man looks up the vastness of space and he 133 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:14.040 finds a question mark, He finds a lack of certainty. Well, 134 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.759 the medieval man looks up at the heavens and he 135 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:20.439 doesn't see a question mark. What he sees is an answer. 136 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.639 He sees an answer to the fundamental questions that we're 137 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:27.560 prone to ask. He finds a place for his mind 138 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:33.200 to rest in the perfect order and joy that exists 139 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:36.679 in the heavens. And so this there are two fundamentally 140 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.200 different ways of looking at the cosmos. It's not just 141 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:43.039 a matter of different science. The science Lewis actually brings 142 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.960 up is actually secondary to the primary issue. And the 143 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:49.320 primary issue is the questions that we're asking, which are 144 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:53.519 then connected to what we're seeking. And I guess the 145 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:56.559 question is what is it that we're seeking. Are we 146 00:08:56.639 --> 00:08:59.679 seeking order and purpose that actually exists, or are we 147 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:02.679 seeking to project order. 148 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:04.000 And purpose on the cosmos. 149 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.120 And these are two very different ways of seeing the world, 150 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:08.679 and this is going to result in two very different 151 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:11.919 worlds to be seen. And so let's break down the 152 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:13.080 medieval cosmos. 153 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:13.320 A little bit more. 154 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:16.159 A right, So at the center here you have Earth, 155 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:18.480 and if you were to go even deeper here to 156 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:20.519 the center of the Earth, well, this is where you 157 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:24.480 have Hell, which is of course the furthest away from God, 158 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:27.720 the furthest away from the realm of order, the realm 159 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:30.279 of being, the realm of existence. And of course, if 160 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.799 you're familiar with Dante's Inferno, you know, once you get 161 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:34.799 to the inner circle of Hell, which would be the 162 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:37.720 inner circle of the Inner Circle, well, at this point 163 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:42.879 everything is frozen. It's not moving, and that's because we 164 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:47.519 are the furthest away from being itself. We're actually starting 165 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:50.519 to approach non being. But one thing that's very interesting 166 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:54.879 is that in this understanding that God is usually understood 167 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:59.360 as being stable because he's fully actualized. If you're fully actualized, 168 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:01.840 that means there's nothing else that you can actually do, 169 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.799 there's nothing else that you can become. And so God 170 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.279 is unmoving, or perhaps we might want to say his 171 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:11.360 actions are eternal, which is another way of saying the 172 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:16.840 same thing. And so one hand you have God has 173 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:20.799 complete stability, but also so does Hell. And that's because 174 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:23.080 the closer you get to evil, the more that you 175 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:26.840 recognize evil is a pale invitation. It's a mockery of 176 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.519 the good. And so just as God is stable, well 177 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:34.000 so as Hell, but for very different reasons. But nonetheless, 178 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.840 so you have held the very center, and then you 179 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:38.519 have Earth, which is the heaviest of the elements. On 180 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:41.440 top of the Earth, you have water. So now we're 181 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:45.279 moving toward the lighter, toward the more ethereal and so 182 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.840 water is the next sphere of Earth. And then you 183 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:51.960 move out a step further, and now you have air, 184 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:54.759 and then move out further and now you have fire 185 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:58.000 in something like what we might call our atmosphere. But 186 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:00.879 this is a pure fire, and because it's so pure 187 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:04.360 we don't see it. It's actually transparent. And so this 188 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:07.600 is definitely a very Platonic idea here, and so we 189 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.120 can definitely see Plato's influence here that as we move 190 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:16.240 toward the more real, we get less solid, the sense 191 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:20.159 that there is this levity toward reality, and so the 192 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:22.679 more that we move toward what is more real. Things 193 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:26.960 become lighter, more ethereal, less earth bound. The more that 194 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.000 we move away from the perfect order of the heavens, 195 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:31.600 the more more that we move away from the grounded being. Well, 196 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:35.279 the more grounded we become, the heavier we become, the 197 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:38.440 more prone we are to being dragged down rather than 198 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:42.480 rising up toward the heaven. And once we move beyond 199 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:46.039 the last of these earthly spheres, well, now we move 200 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:51.440 into the planetary spheres, which we're believed to be moved 201 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:55.960 along by divine powers. Now, of course, all of these 202 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:00.559 powers are going to be named after Roman gods. But 203 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:04.279 I mean, of course our medieval Christian philosophers and theologians 204 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:07.039 don't believe in the Roman gods at least in the 205 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:10.320 same way that the Romans did. But even though the 206 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:14.679 names kind of stick, they're really talking about angelic powers, 207 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:21.519 angelic intelligences that are responsible for moving the planets in 208 00:12:21.639 --> 00:12:25.240 their spherical motion. And each of these angelic powers was 209 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:30.039 said to have some particular influence, very often connected to 210 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:35.240 what the gods stood for in the Roman mythology. Now, 211 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:40.120 Lewis points out that this might raise some questions for us, Right, 212 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:43.279 what are these medieval Christians doing with Roman gods and 213 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:47.440 goddesses in their theology, in their cosmology, and Lewis says 214 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:50.240 that as far as he can tell, that really just 215 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:54.200 wasn't an issue, which seems to indicate that the Medievals 216 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:58.720 believed that, you know, the ancient Pagans had something right, 217 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:03.039 even though obviously they were wrong in a very fundamental sense. 218 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:06.279 And we'll get more into the intersection of Christian theology 219 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:10.440 and Pagan mythology, especially when we get to Perilandra, and 220 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:12.159 we can certainly talk about that more if you want 221 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.200 to now in the Discord chat and in the Life Meeting, 222 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.840 but he starts to deal with that more directly in Peralandra, 223 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:20.399 and so that's where we will start to deal with 224 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:23.360 it in these videos. But for now, just know that 225 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:27.080 there seem to be some recognition that the ancient Pagans, 226 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:29.200 even though they were wrong on a fundamental level, they 227 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:33.320 weren't entirely wrong. That they had these certain desires and 228 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.879 these certain thoughts that in some way at least start 229 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:39.720 to approach reality, which are then given proper context within 230 00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:44.080 the Christian theological framework. And so when we talk about Luna, 231 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:47.480 we talk about Mars, we talk about Venus, we're going 232 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:52.519 to get some thematic associations with these pagan gods and goddesses, 233 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:57.559 but really what we're talking about are Christian angelic intelligences, 234 00:13:57.799 --> 00:14:00.919 Christian angelic powers that are respond possible for moving the 235 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:06.240 spheres and exert some influence on our life down here 236 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:10.559 on Earth. However, because the Earth is a fallen planet, 237 00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:15.519 because things are tend toward corruption down here, well, a 238 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:19.440 lot of times these influences will be misappropriated. Even though, 239 00:14:19.879 --> 00:14:23.480 operating as they are in the perfectly ordered realm of 240 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:26.360 the heavens, they are all good, right. All of the 241 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:31.000 planetary spheres have good influences. However, these influences can have 242 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:35.120 a negative instantiation as they enter into our corrupted atmosphere 243 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:38.679 and are picked up by corrupted. 244 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:39.200 Men and women. 245 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:42.360 Right now, the first planetary influence that we're going to 246 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:44.960 talk about is the Moon or Luna, and a lot 247 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.039 of the information I'm going to go over in this 248 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.480 section of the video comes from C. S. Lewis's The 249 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:54.799 Discarded Image as well as Michael Ward's Planet Narnium. And 250 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:58.519 this is a book that I probably should have recommended 251 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:00.919 in the last video because even though its called planet 252 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:03.080 Narnia and deals a lot with Narnium. A lot of 253 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:05.320 the information that he goes over also does relate to 254 00:15:05.320 --> 00:15:08.120 the Ransom series, and so I will be talking about 255 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:10.080 this from time to time, but I'll probably talk about 256 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.519 it a bit more of extended fashion when we get 257 00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:15.600 to Narnium. But anyways, so in the medieval model, Luna 258 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:18.279 was the planet closest to Earth. In Greek and Roman myth, 259 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:21.879 Luna was associated with a number of different named goddesses, 260 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:26.360 such as Selene, Artemis, and Cynthia, and these goddesses survived 261 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:32.120 into medieval and Renaissance times. Another of Luna's names was Diana, 262 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:35.279 who was specifically the goddess of hunting because of course, 263 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:37.399 when the moon is bright, well now it's easier to 264 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:41.919 hunt at night. And Luna's whiteness and brightness also made 265 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:45.440 it natural to associate her with the metal silver, and 266 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:50.000 so Luna produces silver in the earth. Now because the 267 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:52.879 moon has effects on the tides, the seas, and the rivers, 268 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:57.080 she became associated with wateriness. In our related note, she's 269 00:15:57.080 --> 00:16:03.960 connected with inconstancy and dealt with movement with transitions above lunisphere. 270 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:07.679 Everything in the heavens was considered perfect and unchanging, but 271 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:12.639 within and beneath lunisphere everything was subject to alteration. And 272 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:15.639 so this is where the order of the heavens starts 273 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:18.240 to break down. And this kind of makes sense when 274 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:20.600 you stop and think about it. You know, the moon 275 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:24.080 changes its appearance on a regular basis. However, it changes 276 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:27.399 its appearance in an orderly way that we can actually predict. 277 00:16:28.039 --> 00:16:29.960 You look up at the moon and you know it 278 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.639 has craters, that it has some apparent physical imperfections. The 279 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:36.720 moon has a light side and it has a dark side. 280 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:42.440 And more mythologically speaking, I mean the moon has one 281 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.399 face toward Earth and the other is toward the order 282 00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:47.960 of the heavens. And so the moon is this transition 283 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:53.039 point between order and chaos. For this reason, Luna had 284 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:57.519 an influence on wanderers and travelers, those who were given 285 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:00.840 over to movement. And she also has an influence over sanity, 286 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:04.759 which is why people who lose their wits are called lunatics. 287 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:08.799 And in fact, this is also connected to the myths 288 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:09.839 of werewolves. 289 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:10.400 Right. 290 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:14.720 Because Luna has an influence over sanity, a negative influence 291 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:18.960 with Luna can actually lead people, in extreme cases toward 292 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:25.279 over identification with their beasteal chaotic natures to the detriment 293 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:29.519 of their reason, of their rational souls. And the only 294 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.759 thing that can stop a werewolf is of course silver. 295 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:35.599 And so we get really this beautiful poetic imagery in 296 00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:39.319 these myths that the only way that Luna can atone 297 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:41.960 for her sins is with her tears, that is, with 298 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:46.240 the silver that she produces in the Earth. And so 299 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:48.240 there are a lot of, you know, stories that are 300 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.400 connected with the moon and all this really comes down 301 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:56.200 to some connection with transition toward life on the borders 302 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:00.160 of realities. Luna gets a day of the week, which 303 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.200 is of course Monday or Moonday. Her metal is silver, 304 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:07.559 as I mentioned, and she's associated with envy, with wateriness, 305 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:12.680 with confusion, lunacy, boundary between certainty and mutability, and she's 306 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:18.039 also a sponsor of hunting and wandering. Right next moving out, 307 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:23.000 the second planet closest to Earth in this model is Mercury. Now, 308 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:25.599 Mercury was known to be the fastest moving of the planets. 309 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.880 Partly because of this rapidity, Mercury became thought of as 310 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.759 a messenger of the gods. He's often depicted with wings 311 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.559 on his cap and on his heels. He held a 312 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:37.279 wand with which he directed pious souls to their happy 313 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:41.000 dwellings in the afterlife. And Mercury's lightness and quickness carry 314 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:43.559 over to the metal with which he was associated. And 315 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.440 so if you imagine quicksilver, it's going to roll around 316 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:50.480 a dish, dividing into droplets and then recombining very swiftly 317 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:54.880 and glitteringly. And so this tendency of Mercury to divide 318 00:18:54.920 --> 00:18:58.000 into reunite means that he became connected with a variety 319 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:00.680 of different things that split up and then I'm back together. 320 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:04.599 He is the god of boxers, of thieves, and even 321 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:08.359 of crossroads. This again we get this idea of movement 322 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:13.079 of transition. In Greek mythology, Mercury is of course called Hermes, 323 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:15.799 and as the messenger of the gods, Mercury was also 324 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:19.519 thought to have a particular responsibility for speech. He was 325 00:19:19.559 --> 00:19:23.359 linked with scholarship and with learning. Now his day of 326 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:26.839 the week is Wednesday by means of his Norse counterpart Wodin. 327 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:30.680 His medal is of course quicksilver, and he is associated 328 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:35.000 with swiftness, with heraldry, with skill and speech and learning, 329 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.839 ability to divide and to recombine and He also is 330 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:42.240 connected with the idea of twins, which will come up 331 00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:44.160 again when we get to the horse and his boy 332 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:47.640 much later on. Now, moving out next, we have Venus. Now, 333 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:49.920 Venus appears brightly in the sky both a dawn and 334 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:52.440 at dusk, and was known as the morning star as 335 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:57.039 well as the evening star or Hesperus. Now, mythologically, Hesperus 336 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:59.559 was a deity who had a western garden in which 337 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:04.200 his daughter the Hesperites guarded a grove of immortality giving 338 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:06.599 apple trees. Now we're going to see this imagery come 339 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:10.039 up a couple times, obviously in Perlandrum as well as 340 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:13.880 in the Magician's Nephew. Now, although Hesperus was conceived of 341 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:16.559 as a male god, the special beauty of Venus in 342 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:18.839 the sky led it to be thought of chiefly as 343 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:22.960 a feminine planet. And of course this is connected to Venus, 344 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:27.160 the goddess of amorousness and sexuality, since she presided over 345 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:30.839 such qualities. She was also connected with fertility and creativity, 346 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:37.440 and thence to motherliness. Now, Homer associated Aphrodite or Venus 347 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:40.839 with laughter. She was the goddess of sweetness and love. 348 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:42.640 She was considered one. 349 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:47.039 Of the most positive influences, and so she was known 350 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:51.200 as Fortuna minor. Her day of the week is Friday 351 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:55.519 by means of her Norse counterpart Friga. Her metal is copper, 352 00:20:56.119 --> 00:21:05.000 and she is associated with sweetness, with warmth, with beauty, laughter, motherliness, sexuality, fertility, vitality, 353 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:09.720 and creativity. And so she is a life giving influence. 354 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.799 She is a loving, she is a motherly she is 355 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:16.720 a feminine influence. In many ways, she is something like 356 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:22.640 the feminine ideal. All right, moving out, Next, we have 357 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:26.359 Soul or the sun. Now, Soul was the eye in 358 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:29.319 the mind of the whole universe. His fear was the 359 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.599 heaven of theologians and philosophers, and he produced the noblest metal, 360 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:36.839 that is gold, and alchemists were always trying to harness 361 00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:39.160 his power. Right they were looking for the philosopher's stone 362 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.160 that would allow them to turn base metal into gold. 363 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:46.680 Soul's characteristic influence was to illuminate the human mind, making 364 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:50.079 people wise and liberal, obviously not in like a contemporary 365 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:53.799 political sense, but the sense of being generous, free and 366 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:59.440 opposed to greed and to raw pragmatism or utilitarianism. Soul 367 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:02.880 burns a way base considerations of greed and profit, and 368 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:05.039 so here we have the influence. 369 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:05.960 That gives us gold. 370 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:09.440 The influence that gives us wealth is also the influence 371 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:12.039 that leads us to hold wealth in an open hand, 372 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:16.440 to recognize that the metal, that the material of gold, 373 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:19.640 is nothing more than a symbol for that which is 374 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:20.240 true wealth. 375 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:21.480 And if we look. 376 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:25.400 To gold as true wealth, then we are grasping at 377 00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:28.599 shadows rather than the substance to which the shadows should 378 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.920 point us. If we're looking directly, and where we need 379 00:22:31.960 --> 00:22:34.960 to look, it's in the direction of the sun. However, 380 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:38.759 the sun itself is nothing that our reason can grasp entirely. 381 00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:42.079 The sun is not something that we see, is that 382 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:45.039 by which we see. And so the more that we're 383 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:49.240 able to see not necessarily the sun itself, but we're 384 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:53.240 able to see the world illuminated by the sun. Well, 385 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:56.640 the more rightly related we are becoming to the influence 386 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:01.200 of soul. The Greek equivalent of soul was Apollo. His 387 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:03.759 position in the middle of the planetary ranks was held 388 00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:07.039 to denote a special dignity and honor, like the positioning 389 00:23:07.079 --> 00:23:09.160 of the heart in the middle of the body, or 390 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:11.960 like a king dwelling among his subjects, and of course 391 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:14.680 in the Bible, the sun is frequently a metaphor for 392 00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:19.000 the divine image. And so, you know, we tend to 393 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:22.000 say that this old model is geocentric, replacing the Earth 394 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.279 of the center. But really, you know, if you look 395 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.960 at the way the heavenly spiritual arrange, it actually does 396 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.839 have the Sun at the center of the planetary spheres. 397 00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:34.440 And so I mean, in a manner of speaking, this 398 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.920 could still be described as heliocentric, which just means something 399 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:38.559 a little bit different than that. And so we have 400 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:41.559 this idea that reason or wisdom is found at the 401 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:44.839