I have been talking about the literary alchemy of C. S. Lewis’ Ransom Trilogy of which That Hideous Strength is the finale since 2005 when I gave a talk on the subject at Dr Amy H. Sturgis‘ ‘Past Watchful Dragons’ conference at Belmont University on the ‘Fantasy and Faith’ of Lewis. I was invited at that gathering to speak to the New York C. S. Lewis Society in January 2008 on the same subject which led to a date in April 2010 at the Oklahoma City C. S. Lewis Society conference to revisit alchemy in outer space. That trip led to my family’s move to OKC, believe it or not, later that year.

It’s a subject dear to me and I hope that Annie Crawford’s talk about the third book’s ‘Cosmic Alchemy’ fosters an interest in the traditional and literary hermeticism in CSL’s work beyond and in tandem with the astrology.

Here are links to three Substack posts about literary alchemy which touch at least tangentially on Lewis’ occult artistry:

• Literary Alchemy: Sacred Science, Sacred Art, and ‘The Alembic of Story’ This is a draft chapter from my PhD thesis in which I explained the Perennialist view of metallurgical alchemy as a sacred science, non-liturgical story telling heavy in hermetic symbolism as sacred art, and why and how readers are transformed in the ‘Alembic of Story.’

• Metallurgical, Literary, and Psychological Alchemy: Is Jung a Good Guide for Understanding J. K. Rowling’s Artistry and Meaning? This podcast and article is valuable both for the succinct introduction in the discussion I have in it with Nick Jeffery of why writers, poets, and playwrights from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Lewis and Rowling have used alchemical symbolism (cf., the ten minutes beginning ~ 35:00 in the podcast) and for the bullet-point notes in the write-up beneath the video with a host of links.

• A Spirited Conversation about Rowling-Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike Series and C. S. Lewis’ ‘Till We Have Faces’ This conversation with Nick Jeffery focuses on the correspondence with and differences between Lewis’ adaptation of Cupid and Psyche myth in his Till We Have Faces and Rowling-Galbraith’s in the Cormoran Strike novels. It begins, however, with a review of all the traditional Shed tools that Lewis and Rowling have in common, which include literary alchemy.

I share in the last one the story of how I learned about ring composition via my search of Lewis scholarship in 2010 to see if anything had been written about the hermeticism embedded in the Space Trilogy; there wasn’t, but, reading Sanford Schwartz’ C. S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy in that search, I was introduced to Lewis’ chiastic writing and to Mary Douglas which led directly to my writing Harry Potter as Ring Composition and Ring Cycle. Imagine Rowling Studies today if I hadn’t been exploring C. S. Lewis scholarship to learn more about her hermetic artistry and meaning; a very different place!

Let me know in the comment boxes below what you think of Annie Crawford’s ‘Cosmic Alchemy in That Hideous Strength‘ and my various pieces linked above! If you want my notes and Power Point slides on Lewis and alchemy, drop me a note at john at HogwartsProfessor dot com and I’ll send them on.