I’m thinking about a book today that I once read by C.S. Lewis called “Till We Have Faces”. It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Lewis’s story takes place in a Greek inspired setting in which Psyche is named “Istra” and Cupid is the “God of the Grey Mountain”. I don’t want to give away the whole story, but it touched me so much that I feel compelled to discuss it.
Till We Have Faces, being a story about Gods and men, made me think of humankind’s own interactions with the “Gods”, and also of humankind’s own relationship to God in general. It made me think about the native legends of the “Star People” who return to earth to gift mankind with knowledge during a time of great turmoil when we have lost our way. And to be honest as the planet we live on dissolves both ecologically and sociologically I find myself hoping for the return of such Gods and their knowledge, asking:
“Why do you suppose the Gods haven’t come down yet?” and “When do you suppose they will?”
While reading this book I feel I found the answers to these questions. It dawned on me when Orual, who’s Istra’s sister, says: “I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer.” And she goes on to say that the Gods cannot meet us until we ourselves have faces. Until we have faces? In other words, the Gods cannot meet us until we have learned to come from a place of authenticity, spiritualized ourselves, and have developed certain characteristics of our own. I believe there’s something that must happen internally within the hearts and minds of mankind, before any God or Gods answer us or sacred knowledge be revealed and passed down.
There were also messages throughout the book on how humanity treats beauty. Istra was so beautiful that initially all the people fell to their feet & worshipped her as if she were the reincarnation of Venus. Then, in stark contrast to worshipping her, when the people started getting ill, they turned on her and began blaming her for their woes. They were so hyper-fixated on her that she became both the muse/savior and then the curse/problem.
I love Istra, because her beauty acted like a mirror revealing what lives within the hearts of mankind.
I told my Father about this book and he, being a lover of progressive rock music said: “Till We Have Faces is an album by Steve Hackett.” After doing a little bit of research we discovered Steve liked the story so much that it inspired an entire album. So I must include a song from it in honor of this beautiful story. After listening to the album myself I decided on this thought provoking song “Gulf”, which in my opinion, sort of lyrically reminds me of Istra who acted as the mirror revealing what lives within the hearts and minds of mankind:
“Cover up your women like it says in the Koran. Well maybe it’s the will of the lord? Or the mind of man?”
“Gulf” from Steve Hackett’s 1984 album “Till We Have Faces”
