How to Get into Narnia

In L. Frank Baum’s story, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is swept away by a tornado to Oz, a land very unlike Kansas, Dorothy’s home. Dorothy appeared to have no choice in the matter.

Similarly, Lucy, in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe while pushing deep into the back of a wardrobe (a large cabinet in which clothes are hung) during a game of hide-and-seek, suddenly found herself in a forest, a forest seemingly very far from her home in England. Lucy was seeking neither that place, nor the doorway to it. Yet somehow she stumbled into another world, Narnia.

As Lewis story progresses, Lucy’s two brothers, Peter and Edmund, and her sister Susan also find their way into Narnia. Yet none of them can explain how they found the place. It was almost as if a doorway into Narnia unexplainably opened up to them.

If Narnia was indeed “another dimension”, whether a dimension that exists only in the mind, another actual “physical dimension”, or a “world” of the spirit, then how did Lewis explain how one might get there?

Create a Doorway

If Narnia was a fantasy, a creation in the mind of Lewis, then finding the doorway into that world would be as simple as Lewis creating a doorway of his liking. Anyone might enter in, or the doorway might be available only to those chosen by its creator.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, entrance into Narnia is limited to a select few. However, rather than those few finding the doorway, the doorway seems to find them. The doorway appears only to those whom it chooses.

Indeed the doorway often does not appear to be a doorway. Those it selects to enter may discover only that they have somehow entered, be it through the back of a coat closet or by way of a flood of water that burst out of a painting on the wall. As Dorothy was unwittingly swept away to Oz, those who enter Narnia generally seem to enter by a means not of their choosing.

If we are to assume that the Chronicles are fantasy, then we must decide that this is merely the device Lewis used to remove his human characters from this world and move them to another world. The solution is simple. Lewis could get his characters to Narnia by any means he chose. Perhaps the only question to consider in that case would be “Why did Lewis choose the means he did? Were they only convenient devices, or were they intended to tell the reader something?”

A Real Doorway

If we consider the possibility that Narnia is an actual physical place that somehow exists in another physical dimension, perhaps in a “parallel universe”, then the “doorway” to Narnia must be an actual doorway of some sort. However, how would one “cross over” into another dimension, even if it is an actual physical place, using an actual physical doorway that one might find in this dimension?

Is it possible that the “doorway” to the supposed other dimension is not visible in this dimension? Perhaps one must find it by some means other than by sight. But how does one find it and how does one enter?

If Lewis did indeed find such a doorway, would he explain how we too might find it? Would he allow any and all to use this doorway? Suppose the doorway might also be used to enter other places not nearly so pleasant as Narnia. In that case might he disguise the doorway to prevent unwary travelers from meeting with an unhappy end?

Did Lewis give us any clues that might hint that travelers from this world might spoil those places to which such a doorway might lead? Consider the case of Digory and the witch. Perhaps “Narnia” should be protected from our kind.

A Doorway into the World of the Spirit

Assuming that Lewis’ “other dimension” existed primarily “in the Spirit”, should we assume that he wished us to find a doorway to that dimension and enter along with him into that dimension? If his stories might be considered simply a retelling of the story of salvation, as some have suggested, might he be attempting to lead the reader along the path to some sort of “spiritual” experience?

Even if one might suppose such a purpose for the Chronicles, does that explanation fit some of Lewis other stories, such as The Dark Tower and That Hideous Strength? Did some of Lewis stories have one purpose and others yet another?

The Hidden Doorway

Even though Lewis stated that his stories were conceived as “holiday fiction” for the amusement of children (perhaps primarily for the amusement of the child in him), again we return to the question “Was there more to his stories than that?”

Many have found obvious connections in some of the stories to Christian stories and teachings. But again, “Was there more to his stories than that?”

Might his stories be multi-layered? – A children’s story/holiday fiction at one level, Christian doctrine oft times at another level, and perhaps something else at yet another level? If there was from time to time yet another level, what might that level be? Is it possible that Lewis is telling us of something he discovered or experienced, either in person or in a “journey of the mind”?

In the next post, “Are we Far From Narnia?” we will continue to discuss the possible locations of the “another dimension” of which Lewis wrote.