Breath of Aslan

tgraveline

Harley Quinn *growls*
Knight of the Noble Order
Emeritus
Hey got a question everyone. What do you think being turned to stone might symbolize and what would Aslans breath symbolize then. Just curious really what you guys think about that and all.

tg
 
from the non-religious point of view, but it could be linked i spose, the 'breath' thing could be symbolic of the injection of new life and hope into the creatures and peoples of Narnia- turning people to stone was the WW's way of signifying their loss of hope and the way they'd perhaps given up looking forward for better things and for any good to come into their lives.
When Aslan breathed on them he was giving a small part of himself to save them, because nothing can come from you more than the breath within your body.
Turning things to stone instead of ice or something could have been her way of having total control over living things - ice can be melted easily, but stone is forever?

(you'll have to forgive, I have flu and may be rambling a bit...)
 
well... as for Aslan's breath, i'd have to say basically what rosymole said, except from a religious point of view. Especially since i see Aslan as the allegory of God/Jesus(different parts of the books, ahh.. i could tell them all but i'd be quoting all the books, so i won't). Like in NM, when Aslan sings Narnia into existence it's like when God spoke the world into existence in Genisis. and His breath and the stone parts would be like.... i dunno. basicaly what rosy said. the Great Lion's breath is like giving you life again, new life, and the turning to stone by the White Witch is like when we rebel against..eh.. Aslan, for all your sakes i use those words. andi'm rambling now, so rosy, don't worry about it.

P.S. Rosy, i'll pray that your flu goes away and that you get better. so you can come back and do the RPG with us.... heehee. :D
 
hmmm...

Being turned into stone could symbolize the Devil's hold on us, much like the witch's hold on her victims. Maybe Aslan's breath symbolizes God giving a new life to us and releasing us from bondage.
 
Well it's all been said basically.
A parallel just came to me now, that you, tg, might understand best of everyone here. Last week when we talked about us and everything you looked at me and you said, i must just have turned into a rock. And it is true, I was about to do that. But doing that would have meant to shut love out, to shut all that is good out, to shut God out. Turning to stone is like turning cold to everything around you, becoming indifferent and unreachable, even for the most high. But just before I could shut myself off I remembered something that had come to me earlier that afternoon when I was out walking and I had prayed about what to do. I had told God I couldn't allow anyone to hurt me again and I received an answer about it, that came to me again the moment you told me to not turn into a rock. It was like God reaching out to me and breathing life and the want to keep feeling into me, saving my heart.
Well, that's one way to see how Aslan's breath can bring people back into life.
 
well, i'm not sure if its really the fact that the characters shut god out, but it was shut out for them i would say, but i do understand you girl. Yes his breath is his breath of new life i believe.

tg
 
yes, but was he turned to stone my dear? *also picture me saying stone in a british accent*

tg
 
lol, I don't remember to be honest. But since you're asking (in a funny british accent) I suppose he wasn't turned to stone.
I just see it as the devil working in us to turn us from what is good, even though we may not even want to do that and may struggle to do good. He's simply at work in us and we have little choice in that (remember Edmund and the Turkish delight? He was lured into following the white witch, even though deep inside he was good). But even if we fall victim to the devil's intrigues God can still pull us out. That's the whole point of the analogy, i think. Ok, I'll shut up now, I'm only repeating what's been said before.
 
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I have been doing some studying on Aslan becouse ever since this very time i read CON wich ws many years ago, and i think the Breath of Aslan is the Holy Spirit.......
 
I never saw the turning to stone symbolizing anything. It always seemed to be part of the fantasy setting. The CoN aren't allegories like the Pilgrim's Progress where everything has a deeper meaning. Witches (especially White witches) turn people into stone. That said, once they have been turned into stone, I would suppose they are beings who are hardened against the will of God. Aslan's breath (the Holy Spirit) is the cure. But those who were turned to stone in the first place were not necessarily opposing Aslan.

Does that make sense? I'm saying that Aslan's breath freeing the statues does have a meaning, but the creatures being turned into statues does not. I've been wrong before.
 
I see what you mean Inklet. Being turned into stone ccan symbolize (liek Ithilen said before) the devils hold on us. With Edmund he wasn't physically turned to stone, but he hardened his heart to what was true. I think that Aslan's breath shows that just like Edmund heart was softened by him, everyone can be softened by him. The statues in her castles in a way represented Edmund who's heart was of stone.

If you don't undertand what I'm say, forgive me, everything sounds better in my head than when I write it out.
 
borntofly said:
If you don't undertand what I'm say, forgive me, everything sounds better in my head than when I write it out.
I understand it. But I am not sure -- in Edmind's case there was culpability, and in Tumnus' too, they each did something they knew was wrong (although Tumnus tried to mend his ways), so in that way, they could be "deserving" of the punishment, but the others who were turned to stone -- like the little party having their Christmas dinner -- they had not rejected Aslan in anywhere or betrayed anyone.

But then again, from a Christian point of view, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so everyone is deserving of punishment in some way, maybe that is what the turning to stone represents: life without Christ, life outside Aslan, that we all deserve, if not for his saving grace.

Welcome back, Inklet, I didn't see you post in a while.
 
inkspot said:
But then again, from a Christian point of view, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so everyone is deserving of punishment in some way, maybe that is what the turning to stone represents: life without Christ, life outside Aslan, that we all deserve, if not for his saving grace.
that makes sense. that's what being turned into stone represents! and then, becasue of Aslan's death and ressurection, everyone was turned loose from their bonds of sin by the breath of Aslan!
 
One thing always to remember when discussing Narnia is that Mister Lewis DID NOT write an allegory.

"Pilgrim's Progress" is an allegory. John Bunyan's characters exist only in their own story-world, they don't come from the real world to VISIT the story-world. The same thing applies in some of George MacDonald's fiction. Mister Lewis' British characters ARE British; they know real-world history, and they know about events in the Bible as having HAPPENED in the "primary" world. Then they go to the Narnian world-- which, in an allegory, would be "symbolic" of some aspect of the real world., but which in Lewis' reality acquired its human population FROM our world.

Above all, Aslan IS! NOT! ALLEGORICAL! Aslan is not "somebody who is kind of like a symbol of a parallel of an analogy of an echo of a shadow of an archetype of a copy of Jesus;" Aslan plainly and simply IS Jesus: the real Second Person of the Trinity, assuming a different material form. Everything Aslan does is done in the unchanged awareness of Himself being the Biblical Savior.
 
I always felt that Aslan's Breath was the Holy Spirit in Narnia, and that Aslan in this case was breathing life back into the statues, which makes sense to me because the Holy Spirit is life.
 
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