Finding Narnia’s ‘deeper magic’ that repairs the world

Reflections on the Buddha, poetry and C.S. Lewis

“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation.” — C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The question is simply: how do you look back further? How do you find the stillness and the darkness? How do you come into oneness with “before Time dawned?”

I’m sure I don’t know. But I have some vague, poorly seen signposts. Just know that I am straining the same as you to hear the message of these muffled words.

The first way is the way of perception. Nothing that happens has any inherent meaning. All meaning is created by the filtering through perception. Your lover says something. Or you’re cut off in traffic. You are denied a promotion.

You decide these things are good or bad. You are watching through a conditioned lens. Your lens is cultural, familial, personal. It may be informed by trauma.

You may have experienced your life in bondage. But liberation is at hand.