Status Updates From The Horse and His Boy (Chro...

He doesn’t know how to defend himself with a shield and waves his sword wildly. He almost beheads his pony (a symbolic beheading). Then he does down (symbolic death). They fear he is dead. The hermit calls hiim a brave fool. BRAVE. Calormen horses are either dead or escaped. The gate opens and out comes King Lune leading his men. They fight with vigor, too. King Edmund beheads a Calormen. A real beheading!

The hermit sees them as making the hillside turn black, coming out of Stormness (another image of black). Then he sees the red lion. In a way Edmund is a red king and Lucy, a white queen because she is a white barbarian to Calormen eyes. The hermit is shocked to see two children that look like two peas in a pod. Prince Corin (who is well-trained and fighting like man) kills a Calormen. Shasta is the opposite.

Shasta is so confused (darkness) that the hermit’s point of view is shared because the pool is a magic mirror (Galadriel). Since Aravis and the horses could not see the images clearly, the hermit narrates to them. He sees three eagles (one is the elderly king). Prince Rabash is the one barking out orders as the black king. The hermit comments on the foolish decisions he made. The Narnian’s arrival scares the birds.

Even Corin looks serious. There is no moat (dry). The Calormen army drop the ram, mount horses, and line up. Both sides races towards each other. Shasta is frightened and a sign of that is a dry mouth. He acknowledges his fear which has always driven him and this time he does not run. He faces his fear. In the confusion and noise (darkness), Shasta is disarmed by the confusion and slips off his horse.

Cats (leopards and panthers -- images of gold and black) are on the left and giants with spiked boots and clubs are on the right. Archers are in back testing their strings. Everyone feels solemn and dreadful (dark feelings). This is not an exuberant, careless march to victory. They hear the thudding of a battering ram hitting the gate/portcullis of the castle. Prince Rabadash is the black king (Tash is a vulture).

Ch. 13 Shasta and Corin ride in the back of the line together. The height makes Shasta shudder and he knows that Aslan kept him safe. They plunge into the woods so he cannot see as well (darkness). Shasta sees eagles waiting to be fed after the battle (he doesn’t like that). He can’t see now because the sun is in his eyes. Both are signs of blindness. They reach an open plain and form up.

Stage 2 is Jupiter. Its symbol is almost a flip of Saturn. It makes sense due to the myth. By adding water to the ash, it purified and cleansed and then lifted out of the ground (that makes sense based on the Alice webinar). Jupiter is the king of all gods and kings (pointing to Christ’s washing of us). Moreover, it is freed from darkness. Jupiter conquered Saturn, therefore it symbolizes conquering death. POOF!

WOW! Burkhardt aligns stages with planets from 1 to 7: Saturn, Jupiter, Moon, Venus, Mars, Sun, and ? That makes sense. Stage 1 happens in the darkness like a grave or a seed being buried in the ground. It makes sense due to the duality of Saturn. But, Saturn also devours its own children which is what happened to Shasta. His life was threatened as an infant and his foster father sucks the life out of him.