Tash

[PrinceOfTheWest]

I've always found The Last Battle one of the more difficult of the Chronicles to read. If it weren't for the glorious ending, I'd have a difficult time reading it. Despite the heroic and enchanting figures of Tirian and Jewel, the story is pretty much a "downer", with the bullying Ape, scheming collaborators like Ginger the cat, those wretched turncoat dwarfs, and the tyrannical Calormenes.

For all that, the story still proceeds like a typical Narnia tale: light narrative, simple characterizations, nothing too heavy - with one critical exception:

Tash.

Placed slap in the middle of the story, the description of Tash floating through the woods of Narnia toward Stable Hill is not just bone-chilling but almost desperately horrible because you know it belongs there. What's going on in Narnia makes Tash's appearance not only expectable but inevitable, and Lewis tells it as well as his Tolkien describes Shelob or Williams describes the damnation scene in War in Heaven. (It also shows the truth of the statement that it takes a good man to write horror, since only a good man understands it. Bad men do not understand the evil that grips them well enough to describe it with accuracy.) I'd always just shuddered my way past that whole part, then read quickly until I could get to the place where the High King banishes Tash - I didn't want to dwell on the monster.

But this time through the Chronicles, I got to wondering about Tash - what he signifies, how he is summoned, and what his coming into Narnia means. I've got some thoughts, but I want to see what others think. Here are some things that I got to wondering:

• What mightTash correspond to on our spiritual battlefield?
• Since Jadis was the primordial evil presence in the Narnian world, what role does Tash play? Where might he have come from?
• What does Aslan have to say about Tash?
• What might the High King mean when he refers to Tash's "rightful prey"?
• What summoned Tash to Narnia? Is there an equivalent in our world?
• How do the Calormenes worship Tash? What kind of people does it make them?
• What does it mean to say Tash is "inexorable"?
• What might the coming of Tash to Narnia mean for Narnia?

Any thoughts? Or questions to add?

Under the Mercy!

[Jewel of Narnia]

I think that Tash represents the current thinking that all gods and religions are equal/the same. For example: the Calormenes combining the names of Tash and Aslan, to confuse the Narnians.
And shows that a strong believer in God/Aslan can tell the difference.
I don't know if what I said was clear, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say.

[Wallis]

It appears to me that Lewis took much of his inspiration from Revelation. He might have added a dash of some of the other eschatological writings from the Old Testament as well.

It may well be that Lewis believed in angels and demons; I have nothing at hand to support either side of the arguement/discussion.

As one who disregards the mythological aspect of angels and demons, I look at the world, its history, and the Last Battle in a context where we humans struggle within ourselves as to whom we are going to accept as God: Christ or ourselves.

Tash, to me, represents the Old Adamic nature that is always at war with the New Adam. Paul, in his Hellenic tradition and nature, compared it with the spirit wrestling with the flesh. Tash is as inexorable (Not capable of being persuaded by entreaty; relentless) as we cannot shed the human (or animal, in some cases) nature from our being.

From a perspective on the spiritual side, we are in constant battle against our human nature in trying to be living Christs while in the flesh. The Tash represents those desires that originate in the flesh (human nature), and these desires become the objects that we begin to worship. In simple terms, we could quote "power, wealth, beauty" as just the tip of the iceberg. But in more subtle terms, we need to add "self-esteem, admiration, well-being" and many other ME-centered desires that are a part of our make-up.

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In response to your second point, I will admit up front that I might be a bit facetious in my response. I feel that the "irst joke" was already indicative of human nature entering into the world of Narnia. It didn't really need a Jadis or a "fallen" human or any spirit of evil to enter into the world. Narnia was not created as perfect as we would like to think but with all of the foibles of every other world created in the real world and otherwise.

Tash is not necessarily an offshoot of Jadis and her ilk but a personification of the imperfectness of human nature, even as portrayed in animal and mythologic form.

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Aslan and Tash Commentary

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7 Deadly Sins in CON

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I believe there is an absence of Aslan ever having mentioned Tash, as much as there is an absence in the Old Testament of God talking about the other gods that are worshipped. There should be a great significance in this absence. If we all speak with one voice: "there is One God!", then any reference to other gods by the One God would create the impression that there are many gods who all operate at the same level. I believe Aslan, like Christ, recognizes that people set up their own false gods within their own framework and view of the world, and it is this battle that we must fight on a minute-by-minute basis to reject all other gods.

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The wages of sin is death. The sin against the Holy Spirit is the one unforgiveable sin. Thus, Tash's rightful prey is none other than the person who gives his/her entire being to his/her gods and rejects the Truth, the Life, and the Way. In my opinion, it is not God who damns but our own human nature that leads right down that path into hell, however you want to define the term.

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Contrary to most posters here in this forum, I do not look at the Calormenes as being a distinct people (e.g., Moslem, Arabians, et al). I view the Calormenes as being all of the people inhabiting the Earth, and they represent the anti-Christ nature of our human nature. They glorify the physical world. They adorn themselves with pride as well as rich clothes. They blind themselves to a philosophy of the real world that refuses to include the glory of Christ and the Kingdom of God brought to Earth.

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In conclusion, I don't feel that Tash came to Narnia. He was part and parcel to Narnia upon its creation, especially with the creation of all creatures and imparting some of those with sentience and a soul, if you will.

[PrinceOfTheWest]

Again, a few things worth responding to here. Anyone else?

[Gibby]

• Since Jadis was the primordial evil presence in the Narnian world, what role does Tash play? Where might he have come from?

The ape represents the false Christ and the donkey, perhaps his prophet. Tash must represent the devil. Does this mean the witch was Tash? Maybe. The witch was more like the serpent who was a deceiver, possibly not entirely revealed to Narnia and Tash was the entire manisfestation of evil that was allowed to materialize due to the great wickedness in Narnia.

• What does Aslan have to say about Tash?

I can't remember. I would have to read it again to answer that.

• What might the High King mean when he refers to Tash's "rightful prey"?

Those who were willingly deceived by the ape possibly

• What summoned Tash to Narnia? Is there an equivalent in our world?

The great wickedness in Narnia. I think there is. The way is being paved for antichrist as we speak. I could go on forever on this subject but in a nutshell:

2 Timothy 3:2-4

2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—

As our world begins to turn their backs on God more and more, this is becoming commonplace, wouldn't you agree?

Also, technology advances are the setup for the one world government, cashless society, and the mark of the beast. Look at identity theft. Why not have a chip implanted in your skin with all your financial information on it so that no one can steal that info? They are already implanting chips in elderly patients with their medical info. A company in Florida is producing these chips. Look at Europe and the "euro" . The stage is being set. The only thing that is left is the rapture of the church (if you believe in the pre-trib rapture).

• How do the Calormenes worship Tash? What kind of people does it make them?

Deceived by the ape.

• What does it mean to say Tash is "inexorable"?

His "purpose" cannot be stopped (but his "purpose" is limited and allowed for a short time)

• What might the coming of Tash to Narnia mean for Narnia?

The end of the story. But a happy ending eventually, just like the book of revelation is a gloomy read but at the same time, a story of hope and victory!

[Gibby]

Originally Posted by Wallis

I believe there is an absence of Aslan ever having mentioned Tash, as much as there is an absence in the Old Testament of God talking about the other gods that are worshipped. There should be a great significance in this absence. If we all speak with one voice: "there is One God!", then any reference to other gods by the One God would create the impression that there are many gods who all operate at the same level. I believe Aslan, like Christ, recognizes that people set up their own false gods within their own framework and view of the world, and it is this battle that we must fight on a minute-by-minute basis to reject all other gods.
.

I think God does mention the worship of other God's but in no way suggests that they are at the same level. After all, like you mentioned, God hardwired us to worship Him but we turned our back on Him. Therefore, because of our "hardwiring" we will worship something, like it or not: money, objects, self, other gods, you name it! God talks about us worshiping other "gods" but exposes the folly.





Judges 6:24-26



24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 25 That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. [a] Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole [b] beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of [c] altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second [d] bull as a burnt offering."





Matthew 6:23-25



23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?



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[PrinceOfTheWest]

Originally Posted by Wallis

It may well be that Lewis believed in angels and demons; I have nothing at hand to support either side of the arguement/discussion.

I find this an astonishing assertion regarding the author of The Screwtape Letters, Perelandara, and That Hideous Strength. In the introduction to Screwtape, he explicitly discusses that the Enemy has generally followed two strategies throughout history: either getting people to focus too much on him, or to ignore him altogether. Lewis held that our current age was one that fell into the latter error, but he was unswerving in his belief in spiritual beings, both benevolent and malevolent. Nobody who knows his work could honestly come away with any other conclusion.

Originally Posted by Wallis

As one who disregards the mythological aspect of angels and demons, I look at the world, its history, and the Last Battle in a context where we humans struggle within ourselves as to whom we are going to accept as God: Christ or ourselves.

I think you're missing the point, Wallis - the issue is not whether you regard or disregard angels or demons, but whether they objectively exist. If they do, then your disregard will not make them go away; if they do not, my belief in them will not create them.

Originally Posted by Wallis

Tash, to me, represents the Old Adamic nature that is always at war with the New Adam. Paul, in his Hellenic tradition and nature, compared it with the spirit wrestling with the flesh. Tash is as inexorable (Not capable of being persuaded by entreaty; relentless) as we cannot shed the human (or animal, in some cases) nature from our being.

From a perspective on the spiritual side, we are in constant battle against our human nature in trying to be living Christs while in the flesh. The Tash represents those desires that originate in the flesh (human nature), and these desires become the objects that we begin to worship. In simple terms, we could quote "power, wealth, beauty" as just the tip of the iceberg. But in more subtle terms, we need to add "self-esteem, admiration, well-being" and many other ME-centered desires that are a part of our make-up.

The classic Christian view is that we fight three enemies during our earthly struggle: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. It seems to me that you're confusing two of them: the Devil and the Flesh (i.e. concupiscence, the weakness and propensity to evil which is the consequence of Original Sin, even after it is removed.) Tash is clearly an external malevolent being - even if one disregards him.

Originally Posted by Wallis

In response to your second point, I will admit up front that I might be a bit facetious in my response. I feel that the "first joke" was already indicative of human nature entering into the world of Narnia. It didn't really need a Jadis or a "fallen" human or any spirit of evil to enter into the world. Narnia was not created as perfect as we would like to think but with all of the foibles of every other world created in the real world and otherwise.

Tash is not necessarily an offshoot of Jadis and her ilk but a personification of the imperfectness of human nature, even as portrayed in animal and mythologic form.

Again, I'm astonished that you could get that out of the text. The "first joke" was an expression of the ability to speak and to love - a mark of the image of God in the selected creatures (who were not even human, so how could they have "human" natures?) It was Aslan who said to Digory that His new world was not hours old yet already evil had entered into it - in the person of Jadis. The clear message is that Narnia was pure, virgin, clean of sin. Lewis proposes the same thing in Perelandara - an unfallen world, until it is literally invaded by an evil man who acts as a bridge for an even worse spirit. You're assuming that evil is innate to human nauture, not something external. This defies Christian orthodoxy and much of what Lewis wrote.

Originally Posted by Wallis

I believe there is an absence of Aslan ever having mentioned Tash, as much as there is an absence in the Old Testament of God talking about the other gods that are worshipped. There should be a great significance in this absence.

Dead wrong on both counts. Aslan discusses Tash directly and pointedly with the young Calormene officer Emeth when He explains why Emeth's service, which he thought was to Tash, was in fact to Aslan. Furthermore, God extensively discusses false gods, directly and by name, throughout the OT. Here are a few samples:

• Lev 18:21: You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
• Lev 20:3: I myself will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.
• Is 57:9: You journeyed to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes; you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol.
• Jer 32:35: They built the high places of Ba'al in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
• Jer 48:7,13: For, because you trusted in your strongholds and your treasures, you also shall be taken; and Chemosh shall go forth into exile, with his priests and his princes... Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

Originally Posted by Wallis

If we all speak with one voice: "there is One God!", then any reference to other gods by the One God would create the impression that there are many gods who all operate at the same level. I believe Aslan, like Christ, recognizes that people set up their own false gods within their own framework and view of the world, and it is this battle that we must fight on a minute-by-minute basis to reject all other gods.

The wages of sin is death. The sin against the Holy Spirit is the one unforgiveable sin. Thus, Tash's rightful prey is none other than the person who gives his/her entire being to his/her gods and rejects the Truth, the Life, and the Way. In my opinion, it is not God who damns but our own human nature that leads right down that path into hell, however you want to define the term.

While it is certainly true that we must fight our own tendency to idolatry, particularly self-idolatry, that is far from the only enemy we fight. To ignore the clear Word of God in this struggle is to set ourselves up to be assaulted on unguarded walls.

Originally Posted by Wallis

Contrary to most posters here in this forum, I do not look at the Calormenes as being a distinct people (e.g., Moslem, Arabians, et al). I view the Calormenes as being all of the people inhabiting the Earth, and they represent the anti-Christ nature of our human nature. They glorify the physical world. They adorn themselves with pride as well as rich clothes. They blind themselves to a philosophy of the real world that refuses to include the glory of Christ and the Kingdom of God brought to Earth.

You are certainly right in that the Calormenes are all those things, but what is to prevent them from also being a separate race?

Originally Posted by Wallis

In conclusion, I don't feel that Tash came to Narnia. He was part and parcel to Narnia upon its creation, especially with the creation of all creatures and imparting some of those with sentience and a soul, if you will.

My conclusion regarding your conclusion is that you brought a lot of assumptions to the text which seem to have blinded you not only to the immediate meaning but to much of the deeper meaning as well. For my part, I have no difficulty believing the mythology of demons and angels, as Lewis defined mythology - a story that means more than it says. Even as the beings in Perelandara were both real and mythological at the same time, so beings in our world - and Narnia - can be both symbolic and real. Lewis's work, the Scriptures he believed in, and the clear teaching of the Church are all in agreement: there are malevolent spiritual forces that are distinct and separate from the sinful tendencies of our fallen natures. Yes, there is an internal struggle, but there is an external one, too, as St. Paul makes clear in Ephesians 6:12: For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
You may contend that you have a right to your opinion, which may be true, but I also have a right to believe my automobile runs on homogenized milk - if I want to live with the consequences of that decision. I defy you to find any reference to Tash at the creation of Narnia, or any other reference to his presence in Narnia before the closing chapters of Last Battle - and by "reference", I mean actual text, not some sort of isogetic reading whereby you project your own presuppostitions onto what is plainly there.

[Wallis]

Well, my dear Prince. I see that when you asked for other people's opinions, your true agenda was to set them up so that you could knock them down.

Inasmuch as I opened up to you with my opinions, I do not appreciate you willy-nilly knocking them around and down, just because you happen to view the world in a very myopic way.

I take umbrage with people like you who set yourself up as an authority of both Lewis and the Word. Let me see some credentials. I have been a theologian for 35 years, and the fact that angels and demons do not exist is a demonstrated fact, if you will do some research on the subject. And the Devil does not exist except in the nature of mankind. Do some research on the history and development of the doctrine of the Devil.

Lewis wrote in the vein of mythology, and he used mythologic themes both inside and outside the church.

[inkspot]

Now boys. Don't get offended with each other. That's just what the devil wants! Tee-hee.

Wallis, I did not know you did not believe in angels and demons. Why not?

Because I am a Christian, I personally believe in them because they are referred to in the Bible (as that old Scot would say in That Hideous Strength, "Show it to me in the Word of God") -- but I am curious how you can say not just that you don't believe in them, but that they don't exist? Don't you think there are more things under heaven and earth than are dreamt of in philosophy, Horatio?

As for ol' Tash, I tend to think like Wallis that he was created or at least existed at the time of the creation of Narnia, and Aslan makes it clear that he has a role to play, albeit a terrible one. He's like a demon, or an angel of death, maybe?

[Saruman]

Originally Posted by Wallis

I take umbrage with people like you who set yourself up as an authority of both Lewis and the Word. Let me see some credentials. I have been a theologian for 35 years, and the fact that angels and demons do not exist is a demonstrated fact, if you will do some research on the subject. And the Devil does not exist except in the nature of mankind. Do some research on the history and development of the doctrine of the Devil.

Lewis wrote in the vein of mythology, and he used mythologic themes both inside and outside the church.

I don't know about this so-called research, Wallis, but I have had the most awful experience of seeing and praying for a demon-possessed person. How do I know this 20-some year old girl was possessed and not merely influenced by drugs or had not taken her medication that night? Perhaps seeing her writhe and growl, and hearing her most hellish bloodcurdling screams from far off, was enough to convince me she was trapped and that there was some other being there. Not to mention the fact that someone said she had dabbled in witchcraft. And even further, I saw her come back after the Holy Spirit set her free, and was able to hear how this had not been the first time she had been in this state (her boyfriend and mother were there as personal witnesses). Particularly since it happened at my church, after a youth study in the sanctuary had exited. I had been working that evening, least expecting something of that nature to transpire.

Clearly you are strongly opinionated in such matters as you view them, in your fashion, but I am an eye-witness (and I have no doubt I am one in a sea of others). One need only to look at the world of men today, in which people engage in all sorts of vile and heinous activities and practices, opening themselves up to a spiritual realm far beyond their grasp to comprehend. But even more than having seen it with my own eyes I have already known of the existence of angels and demons, for it is in God's Word, the Bible, where history has been written down. Within the four Gospels alone Jesus freed so many people who were bound by demons, and spoke extensively on such issues.

I do not intend to take part in any theological battle, but I must correct a flawed viewpoint.