A Study on C.S. Lewis
I am once again interrupting my writings through the Bible as I felt led to write this article. I know this is a long writing, but if you care about the history of one of the most popular Christian authors, please read it all even if you take a break in between.
I cannot tell you have often I hear or read Christian writers, singers, and other spiritual leaders quote the late author C.S. Lewis. It is the continual quoting of Lewis that has inspired this writing. I have my own personal history with his fiction books that I first heard in 1979, so I decided to do some research on this very popular author.
Let me go back to my history for a moment before I share Lewis' story. When I was 7 years old, my father was a pastor, and we traveled (by car) from Michigan to Washington state. Either before we left or somewhere on the road, my parents purchased the Chronicles of Narnia series written by C.S. Lewis. My Mom read aloud to make the long car trip more entertaining. Our entire family fell in love with this series. We thought it was good that the witch was the "bad guy," and evil was defeated. Once we read the rest of the series, we learned that witchcraft was a very prevalent theme in these books. I am not writing a seven-book series book report and I am going to make this brief, but to state a few facts: it was witchcraft that got the first children to Narnia which later led to the enchanted wardrobe, there are books of magic that include speaking spells aloud, as well as curses, violence, and many characters ("good" and "evil") that represent demonic spirits/mythological creatures.
I re-read the series on my own at least 2 more times between the ages of 17-37 (I am now 53). It was not until I got married in 2012 (I was almost 40 before I got married), that the Holy Spirit began convicting me of my love for novels and movies that were seeped in witchcraft.
Let me go back to my history for a moment before I share Lewis' story. When I was 7 years old, my father was a pastor, and we traveled (by car) from Michigan to Washington state. Either before we left or somewhere on the road, my parents purchased the Chronicles of Narnia series written by C.S. Lewis. My Mom read aloud to make the long car trip more entertaining. Our entire family fell in love with this series. We thought it was good that the witch was the "bad guy," and evil was defeated. Once we read the rest of the series, we learned that witchcraft was a very prevalent theme in these books. I am not writing a seven-book series book report and I am going to make this brief, but to state a few facts: it was witchcraft that got the first children to Narnia which later led to the enchanted wardrobe, there are books of magic that include speaking spells aloud, as well as curses, violence, and many characters ("good" and "evil") that represent demonic spirits/mythological creatures.
I re-read the series on my own at least 2 more times between the ages of 17-37 (I am now 53). It was not until I got married in 2012 (I was almost 40 before I got married), that the Holy Spirit began convicting me of my love for novels and movies that were seeped in witchcraft.
I have been criticized for speaking against C.S. Lewis' well-loved novels, but, as I just stated, make no mistake, the entire series promotes witchcraft: I will repeat it, magic rings, magic wardrobes, books of spells, and a large variety of demonic/mythological creatures. Therefore, please do not be fooled into thinking there is anything innocent about even so-called "Christian" fairytales.
By the way, did you know that even the term "fairytale" indicates the story revolves around demonic influences? In most cultures, fairies are often associated with demons and fallen angels and were said to also be cast out of heaven. They are often associated with mischievous spirits and cruelty and other traits of demons. Even the non-cruel ones are considered spirits, which is basically a "nice demon."
With that said, how could I possibly support anyone like CS Lewis just because he also wrote "Christian" devotionals. If you read the link listed below from John Gideon Hartnett's article, you will just how heretical Lewis' non-fiction books actually were. I was once told not to "throw the baby out with the bath water" because I refused to read any of Lewis' non-fiction writings. But I will not support anyone who promotes the witchcraft God so hates. Don't be deceived into thinking God is okay with such a compromise either. It is no different than endorsing someone who writes "Christian" books but who also writes pornography or also claimed he was a Buddhist. No difference.
(1 Corinthians 10:21) Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.
We all know that people who practice witchcraft will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
(Revelation 21:6-8) He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But... those who practice magic arts... —they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
I have mentioned before how God set me free from the sin of occultic entertainment. You can read more about that here: https://thankful-julie.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-slow-backslide.html and https://thankful-julie.blogspot.com/2025/10/follow-light-of-jesus-part-1.html
The Bible makes it very clear that we are not to call the dark things of this world Light:
(Isaiah 5:20 ) Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
When we watch movies or read books like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Frozen, The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe, or even Cinderella and other fairytales, we open up our hearts and minds for all sorts of evil to walk through our door.
Note: As I was about to finish this article, I came across a writing that verified all I have said as well as learned a lot more information. Even if you ignore my writing, please, read his, here is the link to John Gideon Hartnett's article: https://biblescienceforum.com/2016/06/09/lupus-occultus-the-paganised-christianity-of-c-s-lewis/ I have included a few of that writer's quotes at the end of this blog as well, but I still encourage you to read his full writing so you can see I am not making this stuff up.
If you consider yourself a true Christian, please quit endorsing, quoting, and supporting people like CS Lewis!
Here is a brief biography of CS Lewis, and I will let you decide if you still think he was so innocent after all. P.S. You will see he was obsessed with different types of mythology, which is never innocent because they promote many false gods (There is only ONE true God) and introduce numerous demonic spirits, many of which that you will recognize in most of Lewis' works. (I am leaving out his immoral history with women, but this is another reason not to promote him. Even after he was supposedly "converted" he still had inappropriate relationships with women. None of these relationships were 100% proven but were likely based on what other people witnessed.) This is edited by me but not written by me. As you read, remember the above scriptures listed.
C.S. Lewis was sent back to England to Malvern, Worcestershire where he attended the prep school. It was during this time that he abandoned the Christianity he was taught as a child and became an atheist. During this time he also developed a fascination with European mythology and the occult.
One of Lewis' college friends, Donald Hardman, had mixed feelings about him. Hardman later recalled: "He was a bit of a rebel... When I knew him I can only describe him as a riotously amusing atheist. He really was pretty foul mouthed about it."
As a teenager Lewis was wonderstruck by the songs and legends of what he called Northernness, the ancient literature of Scandinavia. His teenage writings began experimenting with different art forms such as epic poetry to try to capture his new-found interest in Norse mythology. He also had a love of Greek mythology.
From boyhood, Lewis had immersed himself in Norse, Greek, and Irish mythology.
In 1921 Lewis met [poet] Yeats twice. Lewis was surprised to find his English peers indifferent to Yeats and the Celtic Revival movement [which endorsed Satanic druidism) and wrote: "I thank the gods that I am Irish."
He became an atheist at age 15, though he later described his young self as being paradoxically "very angry with God for not existing" and "equally angry with him for creating a world". His early separation from Christianity began when he started to view his religion as a chore and a duty; around this time, he also gained an interest in the occult, as his studies expanded to include such topics. Lewis often quoted Lucretius, "Had God designed the world, it would not be A world so frail and faulty as we see."
He eventually returned to Christianity, having been influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and friend JRR Tolkien [who also wrote books heavily seeped in the witchcraft and mythology and who was also very Catholic]. Lewis vigorously resisted conversion, noting that he was brought into Christianity "kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape... I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
[But if he was truly "converted," why did he not give up witchcraft and mythology? Perhaps because, as he admitted, he did not really to really convert.]
Much of his scholarly work concentrated on the Middle Ages, especially its use of allegory. His works helped reinvigorate the serious study of late medieval narratives such as The Romance of the Rose which was both popular and controversial for its emphasis on sensual language and imagery, along with its promulgation of misogyny.
About his science fiction Space Trilogy (also called the Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy): dealt with what Lewis saw as the dehumanizing trends in contemporary science fiction. The first book, was apparently written following a conversation with his Catholic friend Tolkien [who heavily promoted witchcraft]. Lewis agreed to write a "space travel" story and Tolkien a "time travel" one, but Tolkien never completed his. Lewis's main character is based in part on Tolkien, a fact to which Tolkien alludes in his letters.
As a teenager Lewis was wonderstruck by the songs and legends of what he called Northernness, the ancient literature of Scandinavia. His teenage writings began experimenting with different art forms such as epic poetry to try to capture his new-found interest in Norse mythology. He also had a love of Greek mythology.
From boyhood, Lewis had immersed himself in Norse, Greek, and Irish mythology.
In 1921 Lewis met [poet] Yeats twice. Lewis was surprised to find his English peers indifferent to Yeats and the Celtic Revival movement [which endorsed Satanic druidism) and wrote: "I thank the gods that I am Irish."
He became an atheist at age 15, though he later described his young self as being paradoxically "very angry with God for not existing" and "equally angry with him for creating a world". His early separation from Christianity began when he started to view his religion as a chore and a duty; around this time, he also gained an interest in the occult, as his studies expanded to include such topics. Lewis often quoted Lucretius, "Had God designed the world, it would not be A world so frail and faulty as we see."
He eventually returned to Christianity, having been influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and friend JRR Tolkien [who also wrote books heavily seeped in the witchcraft and mythology and who was also very Catholic]. Lewis vigorously resisted conversion, noting that he was brought into Christianity "kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape... I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
[But if he was truly "converted," why did he not give up witchcraft and mythology? Perhaps because, as he admitted, he did not really to really convert.]
Much of his scholarly work concentrated on the Middle Ages, especially its use of allegory. His works helped reinvigorate the serious study of late medieval narratives such as The Romance of the Rose which was both popular and controversial for its emphasis on sensual language and imagery, along with its promulgation of misogyny.
About his science fiction Space Trilogy (also called the Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy): dealt with what Lewis saw as the dehumanizing trends in contemporary science fiction. The first book, was apparently written following a conversation with his Catholic friend Tolkien [who heavily promoted witchcraft]. Lewis agreed to write a "space travel" story and Tolkien a "time travel" one, but Tolkien never completed his. Lewis's main character is based in part on Tolkien, a fact to which Tolkien alludes in his letters.
The second novel in the trilogy was very heretical and depicts a new Garden of Eden on the planet Venus, a new Adam and Eve, and a new "serpent figure" to tempt Eve. The story can be seen as an account of what might have happened if the terrestrial Adam had defeated the serpent and avoided the Fall of Man, with Ransom intervening in the novel to "ransom" the new Adam and Eve from the deceptions of the enemy. The third novel, develops the theme of nihilistic science threatening traditional human values, embodied in Arthurian legend.
The Chronicles of Narnia, considered a classic of children's literature, is a series of seven fantasy novels. Written between 1949 and 1954. The books contain "Christian" ideas, BUT IN ADDITION to "Christian" themes, Lewis also borrows characters from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as traditional British and Irish fairy tales.
Lewis's last novel, Till we Have Faces, a retelling of the blasphemous myth of Cupid and Psyche, was published in 1956. Lewis called it "far and away my best book." He thought of it as his most mature and masterly work of fiction but which was never a popular success. It is a retelling of the myth from the unusual perspective of Psyche's sister. It is deeply concerned with religious ideas, but the setting is entirely PAGAN, and the connections with specific Christian beliefs are left implicit.
Lewis wrote several heretical works on heaven and hell. One of these is a short novella in which a few residents of Hell take a bus ride to Heaven, where they are met by people who dwell there. The proposition is that they can stay if they choose, but many find it not to their taste.
Very strangely, in 2024 an original poem was discovered in a collection of documents in Special Collections. Its Old English title, "Mód Þrýþe Ne Wæg", is not easily translated into modern English and references the mythic epic poem Beowulf. It was written under the pen name Nat Whilk, meaning "someone" in Old English.
Lewis also portrays Universal Morality in his works of fiction. In The Chronicles of Narnia he describes Universal Morality as the "deep magic" which everyone knew.
CS Lewis often met with other writers and formed a group called The Inklings. 20 men were listed as either frequent or infrequent members, but all were a part of "The Inklings" and most (not all) of them wrote about the occult, new age practices/theologies, false/heretical religious beliefs, and/or false gods. I won't go into them all as it would take far too long, but you can look it up yourself as I did. Here is the list of all their names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inklings You can link to them and read about them form that page.
CS Lewis often met with other writers and formed a group called The Inklings. 20 men were listed as either frequent or infrequent members, but all were a part of "The Inklings" and most (not all) of them wrote about the occult, new age practices/theologies, false/heretical religious beliefs, and/or false gods. I won't go into them all as it would take far too long, but you can look it up yourself as I did. Here is the list of all their names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inklings You can link to them and read about them form that page.
Now here is part of John Gideon Hartnett's article (see link above for full article, this is only a small sample, it is a very long article, but worth the read):
What most Christians don’t seem to realize is that this ‘Christ’ – the C S Lewis version of Christ – is not the Messiah Redeemer, but an archetypal figure revered by pagans since ancient times, the perfected man or god-man, the pinnacle of human evolution.
In light of the evidence that I present in this paper, I submit that Lewis chose Christ, rather than Apollo, say, as his god-man archetype because he wished to draw a great many others into his system of belief. While the small circle of committed pagans whom he knew and with whom he met regularly – known as the Inklings – were already in step with his philosophy, there was enormous potential for spreading his ideas by linking them directly to just one ‘mythology,’ that of Judeo-Christianity.
This is why I was surprised to learn that millions of Bible-believing Christians in the US were looking to Lewis for guidance and edification. Most members of the New Age, especially those who have read widely and met with representatives of its various branches, know that C S Lewis is simply a vehicle for drawing new converts into paganism and the New Age movement. He does this by the time-honoured method – pretend to be a friend, use the right terminology, and slowly draw your audience in another direction.
I will shortly show how he did this, in his own words. But first I’d like to quote two high-profile, former practitioners of witchcraft – John Todd and David Meyer.
Testimony from Two Former Witches
[From John Todd] “How many of you read [books by] C S Lewis? How many of you read [books by] JRR Tolkien? Burn them. I’m going to repeat this – Burn them, burn them! Lewis was supposed to have been once allured [charmed into witchcraft] by Tolkien. Tolkien was supposed to be a Christian. And witches call all those books [i.e. the books of Tolkien and Lewis] their bible. They have to read them before they can be initiated, and it is well known in England and published in occult books that they both belonged to Rothschild’s private coven…They are not Christian books. We have found books that are outside of the Screwtape Letters where Lewis talks of the gods Diana, Kurnous and others as beings, as real gods. C. S. Lewis, who was supposed to be a Christian and his books are sold in Christian stores. Burn ‘em. They’re witchcraft books.”
[From David Meyer] “As a former witch, astrologer, and occultist who has been saved by the grace of God, I know that the works of C.S. Lewis are required reading by neophyte witches, especially in the United States and England. This includes The Chronicles of Narnia, because [they] teach neophyte[s], or new witches, the basic mindset of the craft… The story of the Narnian Chronicle known as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is one of clandestine occult mysticism and is not Sunday School material unless your Sunday School is a de facto witch coven…The main character of the book is a lion named Aslan, which is [derived from Arslan] the Turkish word for lion. Aslan the lion is the character that “Christian” teachers say is the Christ figure, but witches know him to be Lucifer. The lion, Aslan, appears in all seven of the books of The Chronicles of Narnia.”
Of course, one could ignore these warnings, possibly by doubting the occult bona fides of their authors. After all, how could someone as “nice” as C S Lewis be involved in anything of this nature. But believe me, some of the “nicest” people you could ever meet are practitioners of the occult. According to their philosophy, they are morally entitled to spread their beliefs in a disguised form, for the greater good of mankind.
The Narnia Chronicles are plain celebrations of white magic and its power to defeat black magic. They are occult throughout. And the number of magical ideas and pagan deities which they portray is quite extraordinary. These are dressed up and presented in such a jolly British fashion, and carefully geared towards the mind of a child, that our critical faculty fails to register the obvious – that the power of white magic and the power of Christ are NOT the same thing. Readers fall into an appalling trap when they confuse the two. However, it is precisely this confusion that Lewis is exploiting.
[About Lewis' Book Mere Christianity] There are a number of things about the book, Mere Christianity, which should immediately strike any Christian as exceedingly odd. To begin with, Lewis virtually ignores the Word of God throughout. One looks in vain for a scriptural verse to support even one of his countless philosophical observations... the reader has been lured into accepting, or at least being open to, a host of compromising assumptions: that Christ was mainly a supremely wise and kindly man; that the main goal of Christianity is moral perfectibility and that hell is the failure to achieve this; that Christian ordinances have sacramental power; that Christ is substantially present in the communion bread; that Christ was primarily a step in the evolution of mankind. And these are just a sample.
All of these propositions are in conflict with Christianity, but they are perfectly compatible with New Age philosophy. Alas, many Christians today are unable to tell the difference.
