The Horse and His Boy: Chapter 12 “Shasta in Narnia”
C.S. Lewis Read-Along, Vol. 5, Issue 13
If chapter 11, “The Unwelcome Fellow Traveler,” is the salvation chapter, then chapter 12, “Shasta in Narnia,” is the sacramental chapter.
“I see,” said Shasta to himself. “Those are the big mountains between Archenland and Narnia. I was on the other side of them yesterday. I must have come through the pass in the night. What luck that I hit it!—at least it wasn’t luck at all really, it was Him. And now I’m in Narnia.”
Chapter 12 “Shasta in Narnia”
After Shasta’s transformational encounter with Aslan on the highest peaks in Archenland, he is now ready to become a true Narnian. How does that happen? Through the waters of baptism and the fellowship at the Lord’s table.1
At first, Shasta wonders if his meeting the Lion was a dream, but then he sees a large paw print filling with water and becoming a stream flowing down the mountain. Shasta drinks and dips his face into the water that was “extremely cold, and clear as glass, and refreshed him very much.” This is his moment of baptism after his salvation experience.
The waters of baptism are a central theme throughout Narnia. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, all the water has been frozen by the White Witch’s power. The arrival of Aslan means the return of flowing water. Similarly, in Prince Caspian, Lucy and Susan watch the river god, at the command of Aslan, bring down the bridge and free the river at Beruna.
Pools of water lead to new worlds in The Magician’s Nephew. In The Silver Chair, Aslan tells a thirsty Jill, “There is no other stream,” besides the one the Lion was standing at in Aslan’s Country. Later, Caspian is resurrected when Eustace pierces Aslan’s paw, and a drop of blood falls into the river and flows over the once dead king of Narnia.
In The Last Battle, which Lewis said is about the Antichrist, we see a perversion of baptism. Shift the Ape convinces the Puzzle the Donkey to pull a lion skin out of the pool and use it to fake a transformation and new identity.
Baptism may be most explicit in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Some have argued that it directly epitomizes baptism, and the whole Narnia series encapsulates the seven sacraments of the Catholic and Anglican Church. The journey begins with Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace plunging into the water. Eustace’s undragoning concludes with Aslan placing him in a pool.
