An introduction to the Hermetic novels of Charles Williams

Abstract

The novels of Charles Williams are often described as "supernatural thrillers;" they might also be described as Hermetic adventures. To understand what Hermetism meant to Williams and how it is expressed in the novels he wrote is a necessary task for today's readers, many of whom come to Williams expecting orthodox Christianity or matter-of-fact realism. Hermetism is seen as a sub-species of that Gnosticism prevalent in the Mediterranean world in the first centuries of our era. Its travels through space and time to affect the intellectual history of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are noted. After that period it existed largely in underground tradition until emergence in late Victorian days in the form of secret "Rosicrucian" societies. One of these societies was The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which the young Charles Williams joined in England. The way the official philosophy of the Order, as expressed in its teachings, affected the seven novels by Charles Williams is studied. The affects are seen in overall thematic material, and in actual sections of the Golden Dawn material appearing in the novels. The seven mystical novels are examined chronologically; first the four novels of the early 'thirties, War in Heaven, The Place of the Lion, Many Dimensions, and Shadows of Ecstasy; then the transitional The Greater Trumps; and finally the two latest novels, Descent into Hell and All Hallows' Eve. Thematic continuity throughout the series and in connection with the Arthurian poetry make clear the deep and long-continued influence of Hermetism on the creative writings of Williams.