Theology in the Wheel of Time
Note: For updated thoughts about the theology in the Wheel of Time check out my other article here.
In continuing to overthink fantasy worlds, it’s always strange to me when religion doesn’t exist in these fictional realms. Granted, as a religious person, I am probably biased, but religion is an important aspect of life in our universe. Basically all known cultures have some form of religion. And fantasy worlds have gods and God, who often manifest much more explicitly than in our own reality. The fantasy genre is often built around cosmic struggles between Good and Evil, with deities embodying both extremes, yet it is unusual for religions to be built around these figures (A Song of Ice and Fire and the works of Brandon Sanderson being notable exceptions). So, because no one in the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan seems interested in exploring the theology of their world, I’ll do it for them (The Children of Light kind of care about theology, but basically only use pseudo religious language to justify their conquests). I’m mostly going to be contrasting God in the Wheel of Time to God in Christianity because that is the religion with which I'm most familiar.
Theology, the study of the nature of God and religious beliefs, is important. How you view God ought to change your behavior, and not all conceptions of God lead to the same behaviors. For example, the God of Deism is often called the Watchmaker, who created and wound the universe, letting it run down without further intervention. In some conceptions of Deism, the Universe is completely deterministic. Everything that will happen in the universe is determined from the very beginning of time. This leads to a particular conception of justice. Because everything is determined, people are ultimately not responsible for their actions, so punishing people for their actions doesn’t make sense. Justice is achieved by changing the underlying causes. So what does the theology of the Wheel of Time imply for the inhabitants of Randland?
There are essentially three deific entities in the universe of WoT: the Creator, the Dark One, and the Wheel of Time. We’ll start with the Wheel of Time. The Wheel spins endlessly, weaving the threads that are the lives of all people into an intricate pattern that stretches through time and space. There are also an infinite number of parallel universes generated by the Wheel, as well as the World of Dreams which binds the parallel patterns. The cycle of the Wheel, and thus history, repeats after the seven ages, which are the seven spokes of the Wheel. Individuals deemed worthy reside in the World of Dreams and are reborn, woven repeatedly throughout the pattern as ‘Heroes of the Horn’. The Wheel possesses some degree of sapience, as attested by the oft repeated saying, ‘the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.’ Thus, the Wheel seems to act as a cosmic implementation of the many worlds hypothesis of quantum physics, all possible realities exist simultaneously. However, the Wheel learns from its different weavings and shapes world events by spinning out the Heroes of the Horn or Ta’veren, people around whom the Wheel bends the pattern to achieve a specific goal, or the Dragon, the champion of the Creator.. The purpose of the Wheel seems to be its own self preservation. The pattern that the Wheel weaves is the prison of the Dark One. And the Dark One seeks to break the Wheel, and rework the world in his image.
The Dark One, Shai'tan, is the source of all evil desires in the WoT universe. He is sealed by the pattern of the Wheel and ever seeks to break free by bending all person’s to His will. However, in the final book in the series it is revealed that the Dark One is necessary for free will to exist. If the Dark One were to be destroyed, people would become automatons, doing good because they can do nothing else. Thus, Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, does not destroy the Dark One when he has the chance, but imprisons him once again, preserving the freedom of all beings. So while we don’t have much or any direct knowledge of the Creator, other than the fact that they created the Wheel and the Dark One, we can infer some things about the Creator. The goal of the Creator seems to be maintaining free will for all beings. The Dark One is created as a balance to the implied goodness of the Creator, allowing beings to choose between good and evil. The Wheel of Time is created to check the Dark One, and periodically producing the Dragon to re-imprison the Dark One.
This is a very different conception of God than that presented by Christianity. Shai'tan is clearly meant to parallel Satan, yet the Dark One is created by the Creator to be his antithesis. The Dark One, as Rand realizes, is necessary to humanity's freedom. Satan, on the other hand, is created with a place in heaven. Yet, as described in Revelation as a Great Red Dragon, Satan rebels against God, “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the Dragon. And the Dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the Great Dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” In Christianity’s conception, Satan does not generate all evil desires in people, but like Satan, each of us have our own propensity to rebel against God’s goodness: “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”
The Wheel of Time has a theological landscape where all are free to do good or evil, and the goal of the Creator is to maintain that freedom, perhaps in the hope that people will choose good. The Wheel spins infinite worlds, and those that fall to the Dark One are picked out of the pattern. “The Creator had made the world and then left humankind to make of it what they would, a heaven or the Pit of Doom by their choosing, The Creator had made many worlds, watched each flower and die, and gone on to make endless worlds beyond. A gardener did not weep for each blossom that fell.” In Christianity, this freedom does not exist. The Apostle Paul writes that we are slaves to sin, and thus cannot do good. Therefore, God manifests in Jesus Christ to bring grant us this freedom, winning a victory over sin and death, and restoring us to a relationship with God. God’s goal is not to maintain our ability to do evil, but His goal is to draw all people to Himself, the source of all Goodness, Love, Hope, Wisdom, and Peace.
One of the series' main antagonists, Ishameal, is a philosopher who abandons the Light for the Dark One. In WoT, the universe is one of eternal rebirth. Ishamael, despairing of this rebirth into suffering, reasons that as the repetitions of the Wheel approach infinitely, the probability that the Dark One escapes becomes a certainty, thus Ishameal joins the Dark One to be on the winning side of that certainty. Conversely, Rand, in his climactic epiphany, argues that eternal rebirth lets us love once more. I tend to agree with Ishamael, and question to fundamental goodness of the Creator. Freedom is not a goal in and of itself. Freedom is only good if your freedom allows you to reach goodness. The Creator makes the Dark One’s in order to generate evil desires in people. The Creator creates evil, just so people have freedom to do either good or evil, and the Creator, the Wheel, and the Dragon all fight to preserve this choice. The Dark One fulfills his task, tempting people to evil, and causing suffering and death to spread throughout the land. Unlike, the Creator, the Christian God does not create evil, but it is His absence. People fall into evil when they rebel, and separate themselves from God. God does not preserve the suffering in the world, our rebellion against Him creates cycles of perpetuating violence, suffering, and death.
In some ways, the Dark One is like the God of Christianity but perverted and defeated. Instead of the Dragon being cast from heaven, the Dragon in the Wheel of Time is victorious. The creed of the Darkfriends, those who follow the Dark One, very intentionally recalls Christian language, such as the sure and certain hope of life everlasting. But it is a twisting of the promises of the Christian God. In Christianity, it is God and Christ Jesus who are exalted above all thrones, not the faithful. God is not the Master of death, but the defeater of death. Yet, like the Dark One, in the Day of the Lord creation will be made anew, and He shall write His Law on our heart, and he will guide and rule the world forever and ever.
The Wheel of Time, by likening the Dark One to the Christian God, questions any notion of an unending just rule by God. Thus, the Creator values freedom and autonomy of will over all things. The Dragon does not defeat evil and death, but maintains them so that people will be free. So as a final question, if I were living in Randland would I worship the Creator? No. I would not worship the Creator, because the Creator does not seem to be good. By creating the Dark One and working to preserve freedom above all else, the Creator is condemning all people to be eternally reborn into the suffering and death that He instituted and fights to preserve. In fact, If I lived in the universe of the Wheel of Time, I’d probably side with the Dark One. I can’t side with the Creator, because the Creator’s desired world is also one of suffering and death. I also can’t really side with the Dark One, because His desired world is also one of suffering and death, but at least his desired world has the benefits of linearity. With the Dark One, death means obliteration and not rebirth. Rand argues that eternal rebirth allows us to love once again, but I don’t trust that perfect love is possible in Randland. If the Creator is God, and the Creator is not good, then I have no faith that perfect love could exist. Ishameal is correct to turn his back on the Creator, and this is probably why no one thinks about the theology of the Wheel of Time.
The Wheel, Creator, and the Dragon maintain a universe that entrench evil and suffering in the world. Because, people already free, destroying the Dark One would enslave them. The Creator cannot be all loving, and thus I cannot worship the Creator. In Christianity, God frees us from our inherent state of slavery to ourselves. He does not maintain free will by creating Satan, but gives us free will, by winning a victory over death. This freedom allows us to draw near to God, who is the fullness of Goodness and Love. Therefore, I praise God who sacrifices Himself so that I might be one with Him.
