Question 7.

When she asks why it is dark in the room, she and the beasts begin a conversation on what it means to see. Since the beasts have no eyes, they don’t understand the concept of light or what things look like. Meg realizes that these beasts have senses much deeper than sight and they tell her that they understand the nature of stars - “their music...and dance” - much better than she does by looking at them. The beast agrees that earth must be a very strange planet.

Aunt Beast then sings to Meg in a musical language that is more beautiful and uplifting than anything that Meg had ever heard before. By looking around Meg realizes that the planet had no need for color or light - that it was the beasts inner goodness that illuminated the planet in a different way than light rdid. Aunt Beast tells Meg that they are constantly fighting the Dark Thing and that they are “called according to His purpose, and whom He calls, them He also justifies.” The “He” in the quote is goodness and light and love.

The planet of Ixchel represents the need for individuals to see the inner beauty of things, not just the outer beauty of the world. The planet, being devoid of most light, of course, does not provide a facile sense of beauty or wonder. But it is the beasts' inner goodness that suffuses the planet with light.