I was recently inspired to start re-reading The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, and just finished the second book in the series, also called The Dark is Rising.
(OK, true confessions time: I sort of hit the high points in the first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone. For whatever reason, that book just doesn’t do it for me and I end up whizzing through it just to remind myself of the basic plot before moving on.)
Something struck me this time while reading The Dark is Rising, something I hadn’t paid much attention to before. It happens during the chapter called “Christmas Day,” just past the midpoint of the book. Will Stanton has already found out he’s an Old One, an undying person with magic powers engaged in an epic struggle against the Dark to save the world, and is the middle of his quest to find six signs of power to help defeat the enemy. Will attends Christmas Day services at his local Anglican church in Buckinghamshire, and has to defend the rector, Mr Beaumont, and his brother Paul against an attack from the Dark at the doors of the church. He uses the signs, which are circles quartered by crosses, to beat it back. Then comes the following exchange:
The rector stood up, his smooth, plump face creased in an effort to make sense of the incomprehensible. “Certainly it has gone,” he said, looking slowly around the church. “Whatever–influence it was. The Lord be praised.” He too looked at the Signs on Will’s belt, and he glanced up again, smiling suddenly, an almost childist smile of relief and delight. “That did the work, didn’t it? The cross. Not one of the church, but a Christian cross, nonetheless.”
“Very old, them crosses are, rector,” said Old George unexpectedly, firm and clear. “Made a long time before Christianity. Long before Christ.”
The rector beamed at him. “But not before God,” he said simply.
The Old Ones looked at him. There was no answer that would not have offended him, so no one tried to give one. Except, after a moment, Will.
“There’s not really any before and after, is there?” he said. “Everything that matters is outside Time. And comes from there and can go there.”
Mr Beaumont turned to him in surprise. “You mean infinity, of course, my boy.”
“Not altogether,” said the Old One that was Will. “I mean the part of all of us, and of all the things we think and believe, that has nothing to do with yesterday or today or tomorrow because it belongs at a different kind of level. Yesterday is still there, on that level. Tomorrow is there too. You can visit either of them. And all Gods are there, and all the things they have ever stood for. And,” he added sadly, “the opposite, too.”
“Will,” said the rector, staring at him, “I am not sure whether you should be exorcised or ordained. You and I must have some long talks, very soon.”
This is interesting stuff. Cooper doesn’t really get into detail about what this area outside Time looks like, or where it comes from, or how “all Gods” are birthed from there. I think she’s right that all the things that really matter are timeless, or exist outside Time, but I don’t think that God is something that issues from this place. As a Christian, I believe that all things come from God and can be traced back to Him, including Time, and Good, and the Universe. But Cooper makes an interesting point here, and I’d love to get more information on her viewpoint about this. There are a lot of references to Arthurian legend in her work, which highlight a time in British history when Christianity was still young (and spreading), and intermingling with existing pagan beliefs. And perhaps Cooper’s point in this exchange is to remind us that there are many belief systems out there, and all are valid – hence the reference to “all Gods.”
Wikipedia states that Susan Cooper is still alive (and was married to actor Hume Cronyn after Jessica Tandy died, holy cow), and in fact lives only about an hour from me, on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Hmm. Wonder if I could find out her address and get a discussion going? Or maybe not. That’s a bit stalkerish. Think I’ll just keep reading…and enjoying…her books.