The Discarded Image

Together, they show both sides of him.

For understanding his scholarly work, The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis, Lewis's final scholarly work explaining the medieval worldview.

Beautifully written and accessible, even if you're not a medieval scholar.

For understanding the Inklings, The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip and Carol Zaleski, a group biography of Lewis, Tolkien, and the other Inklings, a fascinating look at how they influenced each other.

So it's the planet of this.

Um, Here is the passage on the discarded image about Mercury.

Mercury produces quicksilver.

Dante gives his spear to beneficent men of action.

Is that something you're finding here?

Yeah, and one of my favorite books is his little book about the medieval universe, The Discarded Image.

It's just so beautifully written.

It's full of mistakes which don't matter because it's just a beautiful piece of scholarship and of writing.

If you regard the planetary influences as evil, determinative and controlling you, overruling your free will and your responsibility before God, that also is wrong.

And as Lewis says in his book, The Discarded Image, the medieval church stood out against one other aspect of astrology, which is this, the lucrative and politically undesirable practice of astrologically grounded predictions.

And by that, he's, I suppose, referring to things like, you know, in the Middle Ages, there might be a court astrologer, say, who would go to the king and say, you know, the stars foretell great success in battle next week.

Give me a thousand pounds and I'll tell you which day to go into battle against the French.