Dominicrussell's Blog

The White Witch is the creature into which Jadis Queen of Charn transmutes.  After rejecting Aslan and consuming stolen fruit from the tree of life Jadis gains her hearts desire and becomes a great and terrible Witch Queen.  Stunningly beautiful, utterly murderous a polar opposite to the elven Queen Galadriel from Tolkiens Lord of the Rings.

A witch is not, as now portrayed, a human who uses magic but rather a person who has transcended their humanity and is now something less than human.  Which is where we find Jadis, a powerful non-human ruling a frozen Narnia.

Lewis was a man who saw more to the world than the physical and remarked that if he were not a Christian he would have become a magician.  He was kept away from this path by the terrible experiences of his friends who dabbled with magic and had a break down.  Magic and Witchcraft are not understood in the current age and are mistaken for things that they are not.  The word witch is used in modern parlance for any magic user whereas in ancient religion as revealed by the classics that Lewis was immersed a witch was a person who had abandoned their humanity and become something else, in the same way a vampire or a werewolf was originally a person but becomes a supernatural creature the witch, sorcerer or magician is person who is no longer human.  The modern mind also can not understand magic confusing it with parlor tricks, deceitful individuals who seek power over gullible primitives or anachronistic knowledge that is mistaken for magical powers.  Magic permeates the work of Lewis as a powerful force that holds the universe together and is akin to the laws of physics.  Magic users such as the scientific institute in That Hideous Strength and the Witch learn to use the laws of magic and manipulate them to their own advantage, often to their own disadvantage as in the case of Uncle Andrew who has a nervous breakdown.

Since coming to Narnia the Witch travels across the sea, to learn magic from the court of the Emperor, she overthrows the kings and queens of Narnia and then freezes that land with a hundred years of winter.  The White Witch is rather like Jadis in that she is a tragic character, it is obvious that winter will end and spring will come, it has been prophesized, it the natural course of events and Aslan is on the prowl.  The Witch, for all her power, can not prevent her death which is as sure as spring follows winter.

All evil comes to an end and if you are suffering under domination, if your soul has been frozen and you ache to be free know this, the warm blood of Christ can melt the harshest winter and your salvation is something that he has died for.  All evil comes to an end just like spring follows winter.