The Discarded Image

All objects in the universe were moved by the Primum Mobile, which was in turn moved by God. The rotation of the Primum Mobile caused all other heavenly spheres (planets) to orbit around the Earth. The Earth, as the center of the universe, did not orbit. Astrology, or the ability of the spheres to influence Earth, was part of the Model, though the Church discouraged it on the grounds that it was idol worship and politically dangerous. Pagan influence is clear in the Model, for the planets took the names of Roman deities. Many works of medieval art refer to Jupiter or Venus, denoting both the deity and the planet.

Each planet had its own associated deity, archetype, metal, and relationship to future events. Jupiter, for instance, was connected to a kingly archetype, tin, and a prosperous fortune. In the Model, the universe was not a dark void. Night was only Earth’s shadow, but the majority of the universe was filled with the sun’s light and with the music of the spheres. All these factors taken together would have made the universe seem infinitely alive, warm, and bright to the medieval mind.

In the Medieval Model, the planets rotated because of their love for God. They aimed to resemble God by taking the most perfect shape (the sphere) and by orbiting in the most perfect circular orbit. Unlike the “kindly enclyning” of inanimate objects, the celestial spheres were considered to be intelligent beings. They were often likened to or conflated with angels. This idea raised the question following rhetorical question: if a planet were intelligent and made in God’s image, why could it have a negative influence on people? The medieval answer was that humans could respond positively or negatively to any influence; bad outcomes were caused by human sin, not by the spheres themselves.

Between the moon and the Earth, there existed aerial beings called daemons. Early writers divided daemons into good and bad, with the good daemons occupying the higher levels of the aether and the bad the lower. Later writers considered all daemons to be evil; they eventually developed into the concept of demons in Christianity. With this conception of the universe, medieval people could look up at the sky and believe themselves to be gazing on God’s creation from its outskirts. Most religious writers found the anthropoperipheral nature of the Model to be contrary to Christian beliefs, and for this reason, they did not include it in their works. However, Dante was a notable exception. Lewis suggests that the perfect Ptolemaic universe may have been too ordered, and his next chapter therefore introduces an element of uncertainty.

The Longaevi, or “longlivers,” did not quite fit into the otherwise regular Model. They were what most people would call fairies, though Lewis finds that word to be trite. The Longaevi were not creatures from children’s books; instead, they were older beings who arose from folklore of the medieval period and earlier. There are countless references to “elves, hags, fairies,” (91) and other such creatures in mythology and folklore. Lewis divides them into three categories. The first was the “bugbear”: dark fairies thought to be “enemies of God” (91) who were often used to frighten children. These stories were compelling to the medieval mind because meeting an unkind fairy on a dark night seemed more plausible than “seeing Proteus rise from the sea” (92). 

A second type of fairy appears in the works of Shakespeare or Drayton: the little folk or Faery Elves. These fairies were smaller than humans, though their exact size was in doubt. (The maid for Lewis’s family claimed to have seen fairies the size of children.) Such fairies were mirthful but shy of humans. The third variety of fairy that Lewis describes is the Fairy Damsel. These creatures, also called High Fairies, sought out humans for amorous encounters. They were bright and vivid, often displaying great wealth or luxury, and they were the same size as humans. High Fairies were also passionate and willful, often engaging in fights. Medieval people categorized fairies in four different ways. Some thought that they were: 1) A rational species that was different from humans or angels; 2) A special class of demoted angels; 3) Dead; or 4) Fallen angels or devils. Lewis finds literary evidence for all four of these beliefs but concludes that no consensus was ever reached; the Longaevi remain elusive.