The Golden Compass: a Child’s Primer of Satanism
by Ken McCormick
A reviewer for Kidsreads.com asked author Philip Pullman about his popular His Dark Materials trilogy of fantasy novels for young adults:
“Right, wrong, good, and evil. These four words are the foundation of
most fantasy and adventure stories. But the concepts seem to be absent/muddied in the His
Dark Materials series. Is this intentional? What do you want the reader to
come away with after finishing the trilogy in regard to good guys vs. bad
guys?”
Pullman’s answer:
“The concepts aren't muddied --- they're depicted realistically. What I was
trying to do was very much get away from the ‘He's called the Dark Lord so he
must be evil’ idea” (http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-pullman-philip.asp).
Hello?
The December 7, 2007 release of The Golden Compass, a big-budget Hollywood production based on the
first book of
Philip Pullman describes his trilogy as
As they say, though, never trust the teller, trust the
tale. Or perhaps we should take Mr.
Pullman’s advice when he tells us “You must always be
very sceptical about what any writer says about their
own work” (http://www.damaris.org/content/content.php?type=5&id=357
). I wish to emphasize that it is not my
purpose to examine Philip Pullman’s personal beliefs. The purpose of the present essay is to
examine what it is that Philip Pullman is telling our children in his books. Whether what his books say is in some way
made “metaphorical” by reference to his own purported beliefs is quite beside
the point. In the end, we have to ask
what the books actually say, not what the author believes or says he believes.
The plot of the trilogy concerns the adventures of the eleven-year-old Lyra, the main character, “a coarse and greedy little savage,” as the author describes her, who is defiant, swears like a sailor, steals, drinks, smokes, and roams the streets and rooftops in her free time. Her chief attribute, as she sees it, is that she is the world’s greatest liar. In most children’s books of the past, we might expect the main character to suffer some sort of comeuppance or to learn some sort of lesson as a consequence of her lying, but we will see in Pullman’s trilogy that Lyra is operating in a moral universe in which lying is not a problem of any sort as long as one can do it well.
Lyra lives in a universe that is parallel to our own, and she is the daughter of Lord Asriel, leader of the “rebel angels” who seek to overthrow God. Lord Asriel’s headquarters are in a fortress located on the shore of a lake of fire. (Please note that Satan is often described as “the father of lies.”) His daughter Lyra is destined to take the place of Eve and launch a new cosmic alignment of all the parallel universes by committing the original sin of an act of sexual union (represented in the book by no more than a kiss followed by a discreet panning away of the narrative camera) with her boyfriend Will. By this act she and Will are to become self-aware as material beings.
PLOT SUMMARY OF THE TRILOGY
In the first book, Lyra is given a rare device called an alethiometer (“truth meter,” the “golden compass” of the title). The alethiometer is used for divination, and Lyra is particularly adept at interpreting the meanings of its symbols. With it, with her skill as a great liar, and with the help of her newfound friends the gypsies, the witches, and the talking armored bears, Lyra is able to locate and rescue her good friend Roger in the far North, to which he has been kidnapped by the evil theologians of the oppressive Church for sacrifice in scientific experiments into the nature “dust,” which refers to physical particles connected to original sin.
Lord Asriel, however, seizes Roger and sacrifices him in order to release the soul-energy from him and thereby to tear open an entrance into a parallel universe. Lord Asriel enters the parallel universe in search of the source of original sin. Lyra follows him.
In the second book, entitled The Subtle Knife, we meet Lyra’s
to-be-boyfriend Will, who lives in the
Lyra and Will learn that there is a special knife, Æsahættr, the “subtle knife” of the title, which they must obtain. The knife, it will be revealed, is the device that can cut open the windows through which one may enter parallel universes, and it is also the only weapon capable of killing God. As the children go to seek the knife, they come upon another young man who has assaulted and beaten the knife’s owner, an old man named Paradisi. Will fights with the other young man and wins possession of the knife, although he loses two fingers in the process. This is the result whenever the knife chooses a new bearer.
Paradisi explains that their actions are being directed by unseen spirits, and he bids farewell to Lyra before committing suicide: “There is no time. You have come here for a purpose, and maybe you don't know what that purpose is, but the angels do who brought you here. Go. You are brave, and your friend is clever. And you have the knife. Go.”
Meanwhile, Lyra’s friends the witches have learned that Lord Asriel is planning a new war against God. The witch queen goes off to re-join her old lover Lord Asriel, and the clans gather to go join the fight on Lord Asriel’s side and to protect Lyra from the minions of the Church, which knows that Lyra is destined to become the new Eve.
Mary Malone learns to talk to the Shadows through her computer, and she discovers that she must travel to other worlds to find Lyra and to play the role of the serpent in bringing about a new fall from grace.
Will’s father has been wandering in the Arctic regions of
two worlds for years, living amongst the Tartars as a Shaman. He is accompanied by two gay fallen angels in
his quest to find the bearer of Æsahættr and to tell
the bearer to go join Lord Asriel’s forces. As he is pursued by zeppelins containing
armed agents of the Church, he casts a magical spell which causes three of the
four zeppelins to crash. He finds Will
and delivers his important message that Will must go
help kill God, and then he is promptly killed by a witch who was a spurned
lover, and who then commits suicide.
(This appears to be intended as an example of passionate love as seen in
In the third book, The
Amber Spyglass, Will learns from the gay angels that angels are made of
“dust.” God was actually the first
angel. God had lied to all the younger
angels and had claimed to be the creator of all things. God was now senile and was only a figurehead
in a heavenly host that was actually ruled by the Regent angel Metatron. Metatron had at one time been a human being. (In Jewish occult tradition, he is the
patriarch Enoch, ascended to heaven and taking the place of
The Church learns of Lyra’s whereabouts and sends a troop of soldiers to kill her. They also send a specialist priest, an assassin who always repents of his crimes before he commits them, to follow Mary Malone in the hopes that she will lead him to Lyra in case the soldiers fail.
Will goes to rescue Lyra from her mother, a Church lady whose specialty is torturing witches
to wring information from them. She has
drugged Lyra and hidden her away in a cave in the
The children then journey to the land of the dead so Lyra can find her friend Roger and Will can find his father. The land of the dead is a sort of Hades only worse that God has cruelly constructed to imprison the dead. Once the boatman carries the dead across the river, they live in a grey valley where nothing ever happens and they are tormented for all eternity by harpies who endlessly point out their faults. The children discover a way to use the subtle knife to exit the land of the dead. All the dead follow them to disintegrate peacefully and meld with the universe of matter.
Mary Malone has gone to another world to await the arrival of Lyra so that she can play the role of the serpent. She goes to live among intelligent creatures called the Mulefa. While there, she continues to study “dust.” She learns that according to Mulefa belief, the Mulefa came into being 33,000 years ago. One day a serpent told a female Mulefa to put her claw through the center of a seedpod and to coat it with oil. When she did so, she was able to see “dust.” She then persuaded her mate to put his claw through a seedpod, too, and when he had done so the Mulefa became conscious beings. Whenever the Mulefa deliberately do something like build a dwelling or create a work of art, more “dust” is made.
Will cuts a window into Lord Asriel’s world and the children emerge into a great battle between the forces of Asriel and those of Metatron. Will and Lyra see some angels carrying a glass casket containing God to safety. The children open the casket and allow the feeble Being to emerge and happily dissolve into nothingness, returning to the universe of matter from which He came.
Lyra’s mother, meanwhile, attempts to seduce Metatron. She lures him to a void between the worlds where she and Asriel drag him into an eternal fall through the abyss.
Will and Lyra emerge into the world of the Mulefa. There Mary plays the serpent by telling them the story of how she had been a nun, but had realized that Christianity was simply a big mistake when she had met a man and learned about physical love. Her story gets Lyra to thinking, and the two children find themselves alone in a glade the next day. The church’s special priest assassin approaches to carry out his mission of preventing the two from an act of love, but he is killed by one of the gay angels who have been watching over Will.
Lyra offers Will a piece of fruit which he eats from her hand. They know love. Dust, which had been streaming out of the world of the Mulefa through the holes cut by the subtle knife, abruptly stops flowing out and begins to fall straight down and fertilize the world again.
Will and Lyra make the sad
discovery that each can only live out a full life in his and her own world, and
that the windows between the worlds must be closed and the subtle knife broken
so as to repair the damage done to the universal order and preserve the
integrity of each world. They each vow
to always remember each other and to work to build a
(For a more complete summary of the plot, see SparkNotes at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hisdarkmaterials/ )
SPECIFICALLY NEOPAGAN ELEMENTS IN THE STORY
The founding church of contemporary Satanism, the
All forms of Neopaganism such as
Wicca, Goddess Spirituality, and Satanism, share certain spiritual practices
and beliefs such as divination, spell casting and magic. Not content to simply turn
The following are some examples of occult spirituality that
I. Daemons – Reviewers keep remarking on
the amazing originality of
The way in which
And by what name do Satanists call the inner beast? “Daemon.” From the
According to a Book
Report article "Philip Pullman: His Wonderful Materials," by
Catherine M. Andronik (Nov/Dec 2001, Vol. 20 Issue 3,
pg. 40), Mr. Pullman discovered the idea of daemons, the soul-companions of
each human in his trilogy, via automatic writing: "
Maybe the devil whispered the idea in his ear. Or maybe in researching his novels he ran across the idea in his study of Satanic literature, but then that would indicate that he deliberately set out to write a trilogy that offered Satanism to children as an alternative or perhaps as what he saw as an antidote to “organized religion,” wouldn’t it? Or maybe he ran across the term in reading through Satanic literature purely out of intellectual curiosity, and subsequently forgot about it until it jumped out of his hand in a cryptomnesic fashion. Such things are fairly common occurrences for writers.
II.
Divinination
- Lyra and otheers accomplish divination by means of a
mechanical device called an alethiometer. Lyra has a special talent for using the alethiometer,
as she has quickly learned to project her consciousness into it, and can read
the answers without the use of the reference books that interpret the symbols
the dials point to, but rather by a sort of intuition. On page 24, she uses the
instrument: "In the glow from the streetlight she carefully set the hands
of the alethiometer, and relaxed her mind into the
shape of a question. The needle began to sweep around the dial in a series of
pauses and swings almost too fast to watch.
She had asked: ‘What is he? A friend or an enemy?’ The alethiometer
answered: ‘He is a murderer.’ When she
saw the answer, she relaxed at once. He could find food, and show her how to
reach
The alethiometer has a personality
and volition. Lyra notes that she can sense when it
doesn't want to tell her any more. On
page 71 it says "In fact. the answer was so straightforward, and came so
abruptly, that Lyra was sure the alethiometer
had more to say: she was beginning to sense now that it had moods, like a
person, and to know when it wanted to tell her more."
The apparent reason the alethiometer seems to have
moods is that it, together with other methods of divination such as Mary’s
computer and the I Ching,
according to the book, is a means for fallen angels or "rebel angels"
to communicate with human beings.
On page 139, Lyra laments having had the alethiometer stolen from her: "And Will, please, I done something very bad. Because the alethiometer told me I had to stop looking for Dust – at least that's what I thought it said – and I had to help you. I had to help you find your father. And I could, I could take you to wherever he is, if I had it. But I wouldn't listen. I just done what I wanted to do, and I shouldn't...."
Former astrologer Marcia Montenegro, in discussing the occult elements of The Golden Compass, notes that the description of the use of the alethiometer was very similar to her own real-life experience in reading astrological charts:
“The description of Lyra reading the alethiometer – ‘I just make my mind go clear and then it’s sort of like looking down into water’ (Page 174 in the paperback 1995 edition of Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books ) – eerily evoked my experiences of many years reading astrology charts, which almost always took me into an altered state where I ‘connected’ with the chart through its symbols. Lyra is even told that the scholar who invented this object was trying to measure the influence of planets “according to the ideas of astrology” (173). Lyra does indeed go into a type of trance while reading the alethiometer: ‘she found that she could sink more and more readily into the calm state in which the symbol meanings clarified themselves’ and describes it to someone as a ‘different kind of knowing’ (150; also see 126). The word ‘trance’ is even used to describe this state (174, 359)” (http://www.christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_GoldenCompass.html ).
Regarding Lyra’s special ability
to read the alethiometer, the
On the issue of the divinatory process’ seeming to have a personality and volition, this is a common belief among people who engage in occult practices such as divination. Here, for example, is the testimony of John Blofeld, a translator of the I Ching, a real-life divinatory method accorded great respect and an endorsement, really, for young enthusiasts, along with the imaginary methods, the alethiometer and Mary’s computer, in His Dark Materials:
“Like Jung, I have been struck by the extraordinary sensation aroused by my consultations of the book, the feeling that my question has been dealt with exactly as if by a living being in full possession of even the unspoken facts involved in both the question and its answer. At first this sensation comes near to being terrifying and, even now, I find myself inclined to handle and transport the book rather as if it had feelings capable of being outraged by disrespectful treatment....
“The very first time I did this, I was overawed to a degree that amounted to fright, so strong was the impression of having received an answer to my question from a living, breathing person.... Of course I do not mean to assert that the white pages covered with black printer’s ink do in fact house a living spiritual being.... Yet, if I were asked to assert that the printed pages do not form the dwelling of a spritual being or at least bring us into contact with one by some mysterious process, I think I should be about as hesitant as I am to assert the contrary” ( E.g, John Blofeld, I Ching, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1968: pp.25-27.)
The present question is not whether spirits or “Shadows” or fallen angels actually do lie behind divinatory processes, but whether modern practitioners of the occult practices employed in Satanism and other forms of Neopaganism believe they do, and whether this belief is a part of the worldview of His Dark Materials. Let the reader decide.
III. Traffic with spirits - Witches, who are favorable characters in the books, traffic with spirits. Ruta Skadi, the queen of the Latvian witches is described on page 43: "Serafina had thought Mrs. Coulter beautiful, for a short-life; but Ruta Skadi was as lovely as Mrs. Coulter, with an extra dimension of the mysterious, the uncanny. She had trafficked with spirits, and it showed. She was vivid and passionate, with large black eyes; it was said that Lord Asriel himself had been her lover."
Regarding the trafficking with spirits, it is a common practice of Neopagan ceremonies to call upon spirits, as in this example of a Wiccan self-dedication ceremony from www.celticcrow.com/ncraft/dedication.html :
After a purification bath and period of silent meditation, the devotee establishes a purified ritual circle, walking the circle clockwise with sea water and incense, reciting:
I consecrate this place of rite,
by salted water, smoke, and firelight.
So mote it be.
The devotee then goes to the center of the circle to the altar space to visualize energy filling the ritual space for a few minutes, then redraws the circle with a “magically-charged” ceremonial dagger, a wand or the right hand. This is done starting either in the North or the East, reciting:
This Circle is cast
as in days of old
to welcome the Old Ones
and make
the
So mote it be.
A white candle is anointed with oil and lighted, and a further verse recited. Then holding aloft a pentacle, the four Quarters are called to witness the rite, starting with either North or East. The God and Goddess are then called upon to witness the rite with a recitation that concludes with:
By the powers of the Old Ones
and the magick of their ways
I embark on my journey
May they bless all my days.
So mote it be.
The devotee adopts a “craft name” and makes a long prose
pledge to the gathered spirit witnesses.
This pledge is to come from the heart, but a suggested example includes
“I…, within the circle of the wise to symbolize my rebirth, do pledge to honor
the God and the Goddess in all areas of my life. I will strive to understand their great
mysteries, and the mystery of myself. I
will share this knowledge and this path with all who sincerely seek such
enlightenment. I will protect and guard
the
The devotee introduces himself or herself to the Quarters. Further verses thank the God and Goddess for their witness, release the Quarters, bless the Old Ones, and close the ritual circle.
The
“Don’t be disturbed or frightened or think you’re crazy when you feel at one with the Dark Ones you conjure forth, or by the magical results you begin to produce. You’re not crazy for feeling the way you do about the hypocrisy, blindness and incompetence you see all around you. Nor are you crazy to see the results of your magic.”
Another statement from the “Youth Communiqué” highlights the belief that occult practices will confer on the practitioner, as on the witch Ruta Skadi, a livelier personality: “The best way you can represent Satanism, at any age, is by providing a living example of how the diabolical arts have made you a stronger, more focused, joyful person. The results will speak louder than any logical argument you can present.”
A central goal of Neopaganism as
influenced by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung is the integration into the
conscious personality of previously repressed impulses. It is thought that access to previously
subconscious aspects of the personality will move a person closer to the
wellsprings of existence. Satanists
believe that practitioners will thereby gain a greater “self-consciousness” (http://www.xeper.org/pub/lib/xp_FS_lib.htm
) and “presence.” The introductory
paragraph of the Church of Satan’s “welcome” page cited above describes the
spiritual followers of what the Judeo-Christian tradition would term the “good”
as “desiccated,” describes the dark force which we call Satan as “the
fountainhead of existence,” and asserts that Satanists “exist by flowing
naturally with the dread Price of Darkness.”
Please consider this when reading
IV. The Subtle Knife – The physical function of the knife Æsahættr in being manipulated by a trance-like state in the mind of the bearer to cut the fabric between parallel worlds in Pullman’s fantasy is virtually identical to the spiritual use of the ceremonial daggers called “athames” used in Satanist and other Neopagan rituals. The below information on the athame was provided by Marcia Montenegro:
(Concerning) the subtle knife as a parallel to the use of
the athame in witchcraft
rituals, the athame is seen more as an extension of
self when used in rituals,
although it is used with the idea of doing something magical, mainly casting
the
circle:
http://www.paganlore.com/athame.aspx
=We consider the Athame to be a tool of center, of
self, of evocation
and banishing. The Athame is the tool wielded of
one's own will, thoughts,
emotions, and intuition, over all of the Elements and over ALL. We use it to
command, even, the spirits that we evoke, invoke, and banish.==
http://www.geocities.com/avirtualcoven/tools.html
===The athame is purely ceremonial and is not used to
cut anything, being mainly
a tool of direction - casting the circle and evoking the elements. It is also
used for mixing ritual substances such as salt and water, marking them with the
sign of the pentagram, and consecrating your equipment. The athame
is the most
personal and powerful instrument in your magick
toolkit, and is the one thing
you should not really share. ====
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=basics&id=2874
===The athame can be used to cast the magick circle, call the "quarters" or
elements, and is part of many an opening ritual, handfasting
(wedding) or
initiation rite. It is associated with the element of Fire and the South. It is
customary in some traditions to have your blade given to you as a gift. Some
Witches or ceremonial workers give their tools a magickal
"name". ==
http://www.celticcrow.com/ncraft/glossary.html
==ATHAME or RITUAL KNIFE - Usually a black handled knife, The Athame is charged
with the energy of the owner and is used as a pointer to define space (such as
casting a sacred circle) and as a conductor of the owner's will and energy. An
Athame is usually never used to cut anything
physically.===
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_circle
===In order to leave a circle and keep it intact, Wiccans believe a door must
be
cut in the energy of the circle. Using the athame, a
doorway is "cut" in the
circle, at which point anything may pass through without harming the
circle.====
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_circle
===In order to leave a circle and keep it intact, Wiccans believe a door must
be
cut in the energy of the circle. Using the athame, a
doorway is "cut" in the
circle, at which point anything may pass through without harming the
circle.====
This site makes an interesting statement about the athame
choosing you, very
much like what Pullman says in his book:
http://www.wicca.utvinternet.com/athame.htm
===Choosing an Athame is one of the Witches first
important acts. It must be a
blade that they 'resonate' with; a knife that feels comfortable to handle and
feels 'right'. In this respect, it can be said that it chooses you as much as
you choose it. ===
The same site also says:
==The purpose of consecrating the Athame is to
produce an astral double of it;
to give it its own 'soul'. For this reason it is given its own 'name'. ====
As for the athame’s “resonating” with the user and
the knife choosing the bearer, please compare this to
"I don't want it," said
Will. "I don't want anything to do
with it."
"You haven't got the choice," said the old man. "You are the bearer now."
"I thought you said you was," said Lyra.
"My time is over," he said. "The knife knows when to leave one
hand and settle in another, and I know how to tell. You don't believe me?
Look!"
He held up his own left hand. The
little finger and the finger next to it were missing, just like Will's.
"Yes," he said, "me too. I fought and lost the same fingers, the badge of the wearer."'
V. Original Sin – There is no mention of
the name Satan in
Lyra may be seen in the role of antichrist. It is prophesied that she is destined to perform an act that will heal the universe. She dies but doesn't die, goes to the land of the dead and preaches to the suffering people there and finally leads them out of the land of the dead. The act that heals the universe is re-enacting the original sin of Adam and Eve. The act of Christ was to atone for sin. The act of the antichrist is to affirm sin.
The notion of Lucifer as the liberator of mankind through
the awakening of the Will (notice how Will is capitalized in Satanist
literature) in the Garden of Eden goes back at least as far as Helena Blavatsky
in the 19th century. It is
not found in
“To have the faintest stirring of sexual desire is to be guilty of lust. In order to ensure the propagation of humanity, nature made lust the second most powerful instinct, the first being self-preservation. Realizing this, the Christian Church made fornication the “Original Sin.” In this way they made sure no one would escape sin.” (Anton Szandor LaVey, New York: Avon Books, 1969: p. 47.)
Any Christian theologian will say that the original sin depicted
in Genesis was disobedience to God
that was motivated by Eve’s desire to become like God, herself – precisely what
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”’?
“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
‘“You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3: 1-8, N.I.V.)
“Now the reason that the falling in love business is linked with the coming of wisdom, is that this is what happens to us – at the age of adolescence, when our bodies begin to change, when we have strange new, exciting, troubling, passionate feelings towards other people, towards members of the other sex usually, that’s also the age at which we become passionate intellectually too. We develop a passionate interest in mathematics or chess or art or science or biology or whatever it might happen to be. It’s all part of this great opening up, this great coming to maturity. That’s all I’m saying.”
Tony Watkins, interviewer: “It feels that you’re
stretching it to compare that with what is going on back in
Pullman: “Yes, because you’re looking at it from the other point of view.”
Tony Watkins: “Yes, exactly. The Christian understanding of what Satan says is that
he’s saying you’re going to be like God in what you know, knowing good and
evil. In fact, they’ve already known good – they’ve
known good all their lives up to that point and nothing but good. And they’ve
known almost absolute freedom, just with this one restriction and by embracing
that one restriction and going for that, they’re actually not finding wisdom,
but they’re embracing rebellion, they’re embracing evil. They’re . . .”
Pullman: “I might
say you’re stretching the truth to call it evil. I think they’re taking the first
steps on the long, painful, difficult road towards wisdom. They’re leaving
innocence behind and setting out towards wisdom. These are the two ends of the
spectrum of human experience. Blake called them innocence and experience. I
call them innocence and wisdom. Experience is what you need to get through in
order to get to wisdom” (http://www.damaris.org/content/content.php?type=5&id=357
).
The reader will note that
Almost all reviewers have seemed fond of
repeating the assertion that Mr. Pullman is an atheist, and that his books are
therefore an expression of atheism. If
the trilogy were the expression of what is normally thought of as an atheistic
worldview, the climax of the three-volume tale would not be the healing of the
universe through the re-enactment of the Fall, for that asserts that sin is
real and relevant, and what is sin, after all, in an atheistic universe? If the novels were truly atheistic, Lyra and Will would make out or do whatever it was they did
in the glade and the wounded universe would not be healed. Nothing would happen, except that maybe Lyra would get pregnant.
All of the prophesies, the magical events and
practices, the divination, and the sin in the story assert a spiritual
reality. It could be said that since
there is no God within the worldview of the books, they are literally
atheistic, but that would be misleading.
It would be like calling Buddhists atheists instead of Buddhists. Let’s call
CONCLUSION
Many elements of contemporary occultism that I haven’t
mentioned such as magic and spell-casting and the idea of spirit as an aspect
of matter rather than the transcendent deity of Christianity are found in
Pullman’s fantasy. The description of
the books as “
Pullman has spoken about his loathing for C. S. Lewis’ Narnia children’s fantasy series, with
its richly Christian worldview. What he
has done in this case is to write an anti-Narnia.
That this worldview should be so enthusiastically promoted to children by the publishing and entertainment industries is truly a sign of the times. What is especially troubling is that this brazen assault on some of the core values of our civilization has aroused only a whimper of public outcry, and no outcry at all from the critical and educational communities. Far from it.
Pullman’s novel The Golden Compass has earned the following awards:
Winner of the Carnegie Medal (England)
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize (England)
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
A Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book
A Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon book
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Editors’ Choice – “Top of the List”
A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection
A Children’s ABBY Honor Book
The final book of the series, The Amber Spyglass, the novel in which God dies, was awarded both the prestigious 2001 Whitbread Prize for best children's book and
the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in January
2002. The Amber Spyglass was the
first children's book ever to receive the Book of the Year award.
In 2005
Here’s what the critics have said about The Golden Compass:
"Very
grand indeed."
- The New York Times
"Powerful… a
fantasy adventure that sparkles with childlike wonder."
- The
"Marvelous… the
writing is elegant and challenging."
- The New Yorker
"Superb…
all-stops-out thrilling."
- The
And here is an example of how the movie is being used to
promote the books in the public schools.
This is the text from an e-mailed flyer from a public school English
teacher in the
* * * * * * * * * *
(At the online book discussions at Bridge to the Stars.net) we'll discuss:
Nov. 1 st -- DO YOU BELIEVE in
parallel universes and alternate realities that we can't perceive? Then
this is the book for you. In chapters 1-6, we'll find that Lyra
is a young girl who seems to be abandoned by her parents- professors,
researchers and highpower types, but she loves her
alternate life. She is pulled into an alternate universe and befriends
characters that challenge all her imagination - gypsies, armored bears, and a
boy not from her world. We'll kick off a competition to design the best
personal "daemon."
Nov. 16 th – WHAT DOES YOUR SOUL
look like like? Lyra's
is on the outside and it changes shape? In Chapters 7-12, Lyra's
life is turned upside down. Lord Asriel is not what
he seems, and for that matter, neither is the power-hungry Mrs. Coulter. Lyra must be dependent on no one but
herself and reliant upon a few trustworthy friends. Bring a friend, bring an
artist, bring your artistic rendition of the daemon.
Nov. 30 th – WHY ARE RELIGION, POWER, and SCIENCE all
connected? In the final third (chapters 13-17) of Phillip Pullman's The Golden
Compass Lyra discovers who Lord Asriel
is, but the truth is still being uncovered? Did you like the end? Should you
come to see the movie? Will read the other books?
Dec. 7th --- Matinee Outing and Ice Cream
* * * * * * * * *
In case you’re wondering if since this whole business is so completely outrageous I must have made it up, you can check it out at Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
So am I the only one who finds this Golden Compass affair to be just a wee bit creepy?
Hello?
ADDENDA
The Puritan John
Milton’s view of sex:
So spake our general Mother, and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreprov’d,
And meek surrender, half-embracing lean’d
On our first father, half her swelling Breast
Naked met his under the flowing Gold
Of her loose tresses hid: he in delight
Both of her beauty and submissive Charms
Smil’d with superior Love, as Jupiter
On Juno smiles, when he impregns the Clouds
That shed May Flowers; and press’d her Matron lip
With kisses pure; aside the Devil turn’d
For envy, yet with jealous leer malign
Ey’d them askance, and to himself thus ‘plain’d.
“Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two
Imparadis’t in one another’s arms
The happier
Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least,
Still unfulfill’d with pain of longing pines...
This said unanimous, and other Rites
Observing none, but adoration pure
Which God likes best, into their inmost bower
Handed they went; and eased the putting off
These troublesome disguises which wee wear,
Straight side by side were laid, nor turn’d I ween
Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the Rites
Mysterious of connubial Love refuse’d;
Whatever Hypocrites austerely talk
Of purity and place and innocence,
Defaming as impure what God declares
Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.
Our Maker bids increase, who bids abstain
But our Destroyer, foe to God and Man?
Hail wedded love, mysterious Law, true source
Of human offspring, sole propriety,
In
By thee adulterous lust was driv’n from men
Among the bestial herds to range, by thee
Founded in Reason, Loyal, Just, and Pure,
Relations dear, and all the Charities
Of Father, Son, and Brother first were known.
Far be it, that I should write thee sin or blame,
Or think thee unbefitting holiest place,
Perpetual fountain of Domestic sweets
Whose Bed is undefil’d and chaste pronounce’t,
Present, or past, as Saints and Patriarchs us’d.
Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights
His constant Lamp, and waves his purple wings,
Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile
Of Harlots, loveless, joyless, unendear’d,
Casual fruition, nor in Court Amours
Mixt Dance, or wanton Masque, or Midnight Ball,
Or Serenade, which the starv’d Lover sings
To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.
(
Links:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nopotter - Discussion group
http://geocities.com/guatemalansanteria
- The Santería cult of San Simón
in San
http://www.sebts.edu/olivepressonline/index.cfm?PgType=2&ArticleID=614 - Article by Daniel Heeimbach, Professor of Christian Ethics, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
http://www.cwipp.org/articles.asp?id=256685§ion=Newsletter
- Newsletter article by Dr. Peter Jones, adjunct Professor of New Testament at
Westminster Seminary