Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Melanesian Daemon Folklore?

According to a Wikipedia article on therianthropy,
In Melanesia there is a belief in the tamaniu or atai which is an animal counterpart to a person. It can be an eel, a shark, a lizard, or some other creature. This creature is corporeal, can understand human speech, and shares the same soul as its master, leading to legends which have many characteristics typical of shapeshifter tales, such as any death or injury affecting both forms at once.
I'm looking into the source. Could be an interesting one.

On a related note, I've been reading my Jung, lately. I may pop back in to stick up some quotes from that.

Note to self:
Hamel, F. (1969). Human Animals, Werewolves & Other Transformations. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books. p. 21. ISBN 0-8216-0092-3.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

I've reached a sort of stablilty in daemianism. I'm past the point of the overexited newb who gets butterflies in anticipation of reading another analysis. I know who I am, I've got almost nowhere left to go with myself.

And, although I didn't think that it would turn out this way, I'm not bored at all. I expected this point to be a dead end, to make me look for something else. But it's not. It's rather like a new, calm begining. Not something that captures you and takes up your every though or something that you think much about at all about, but something that seems right. In some intangible way, my entire life is falling slowly and calmly into place.

I no longer need to worry about settling. I don't need to feel guilty when I don't project Sefra enough. I wake up, I say goodmorning to him. Maybe I project him during the day, maybe I don't. Maybe we talk more, maybe we just enjoy each other's company. I get in bed, say goodnight, and he's with me in my dreams.

It's a very low-pressure relationship. We're not obligated to talk, because there's nothing else to discover. We know who we are and why we're here, and that's good enough for both of us.

I used to worry that it was strange to talk to Sefra. I used to worry that I wouldn't find my form, that there wouldn't be one. And now, for the life of me, I can't think why.

Sefra is who he is exactly as I am who I am. If we talk, good. If we don't, fine. But I know that this is how I'm meant to be. I feel whole.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Memories

Memories are odd things when you're a daemian. At least, they are for me. You've got your solid, "real" memories that are exactly as you remember them (which may not be exactly as they happened, but are pretty close), and then you have daemon memories.

Daemon memories are memories of what your daemon was doing in you daemonless past, times when the two of you weren't communicating as daemon and human. They're not something that you can be sure of. But then, can you be sure of any memories?

According to my daemon memories, Sef used to swim around in the bath with me as a little fish. I used to love baths, and taking my toy animals for a swim, and he would swim about with them so that I could be closer to them.

Karl Jung might call that active imagination. Though that, so far as I know, applies to dreams, not memories. But I suppose dreams and memories aren't to dissimilar. They're both things that you can revisit again and a again, and change ever so slightly. I suppose that's what I'm doing. And the change isn't that drastic, because it all stays in my head. Dreams and memories are things of the mind, as are daemons, so it's not so unrealistic that they be added in.

This post is becoming extremely convoluted, so I think I'll stop. Perhaps I'll start a topic on TDF about daemon memories. It would be interesting to see how many other people have them.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Conversions

I feel that an update on my "conversions" is in order. Conversions to what, you may ask? Why, conversions to the wonderful way of thought of daemianism.

I've got... one, two... five, maybe six conversions (one of them an indirect one). My circle of friends now includes and otter soul, a semisettled (?) axolotl soul, a pink dolphin soul, and a couple of I'venoideahelp! souls. Ah, my herd is growing.

I'm also firmly cemented into my life as an elk. I can hardly remember how I used to psychoanalyse myself. Now, my life is one big elk analogy.

And Sef never changes, anymore. It just feels odd. I was a bit afraid that we'd want to change too much, and might not feel settled. A strange fear, I know, and completely groundless. We're very happy.

The weekend before last we went out to see the closest elk to us. We saw 40 or so, but twice as many rednecks drooling for hunting season. I was wondering why the bulls looked so small until i realised that they're shot down every year but a bunch of hicks.

I do apologize to any elk hunters out there, but I don't have much sympathy for you. And when I see pictures of Sarah Palin with her little toddler dancing around a bloodied caribou in the snow, I'm positively sickened. Our world can be such a strange place. It's one thing to hunt to live, but when there's cheap meat and (even better) fake meat to be had by any middle class family, why should we go blow the brains out of some wild animals? Sport? I wouldn't call that sporting in a million years.

Well, here I go on my vegetarian tirade. I was raised by a pack of hippie liberals, so you'll have to excuse me.

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Nature of Daemonism, According to Me

This post is long, long overdue. Here I am talking about my quest for settledom and not a single contemplative post. It's high time that I present my opinion on the concept that fuels this (rather stagnant) blog.

My concept of the four corners of daemonism is one that I've been over countless times, with myself and others. For me, the idea of the daemon has four basic pillars that form its foundation.


No. 1 Pullman

Although I don't like putting Pullman first, I think I ought to because that, I think, is what people associate the daemon with the most. Pullman was the one to first use the word "daemon" to describe these animal companions, although his daemons are fundamentally different from our own.

First and foremost, they are not real. Pullman's daemon's are purely fictitious, and while they are the basis for three novels, they are not completely developed. Pullman, himself, has admitted that there are many fundamental parts of the daemon that he's never created. How are they born, for example? He doesn't know. How are they named? Not covered by any book.

Pullman's daemons are not our daemons, and frankly I don't see ow people can base their concept of their daemon on his books. The other most important difference between the two ideas is corporeality. While in Pullman's fictional world daemons can be felt and touched, ours are nothing more than a part of our mind. So, while in Pullman's books daemons settle roughly at the age of puberty, or physical maturity, real daemons are settled at mental maturity. The physical and the mental are very much different. How can a physical daemon and a mental daemon be the same?

Though they are very different, Pullman's daemons must be included as a cornerstone for a few reasons. First, the name. Pullman used a Greek word describing a spirit or demigod (be it beneficent, malignant, neutral, or a guardian) to give a name to his creations. Most daemians still use this name, as it fits.

Another is the animal form of daemons. Though some daemians wouldn't say that a daemon can settle only as an animal, a general consensus to this effect has been reached in the daemian community. However, because our daemons are not limited to rules of physicality, they can take any form imaginable. A saucepan is not an unreasonable form for a real daemon to take.

So, the issue of daemons "based on" Pullman's books is a two-sided one that can be argued differently. While I respect those who say that they follow the "rules" of Pullman's world, I don't agree with them 100%.

No. 2 World Religions

According to modern anthropology, there were several ancient cultures whose religion and beliefs shared aspects with daemonism. I am no anthropologist, nor do I ave any first-hand evidence of any of the facts that form this argument, but I'll present what I know in the light that I take it. I won't be going into much detail, but I encourage any and all of you who read this to look into these points.

One religion that I have read about is the Meso-American Nagualism. Apparently, it was quite widespread in its day, and so will not be consistent throughout its area. One of the ideas of this religion, however, was that of the tonal, and animal guide. In some cultures, only shamans had a tonal, but in some it was an aspect of the common man's life as well.

The tonal, I believe, was dictated by days of birth. It was also believed that the day of birth dictated personality, so the form of your tonal was a reflection on one's character, much like the daemon.

Also, it was common for children not to be told of a tonal until they had come of age and become a mature adult. This is similar, though not exactly like, the settling of daemons.

While the tonal is the closest example of a daemon-like idea, the Norse fylgja also shared themes with our daemons, though much fewer.

No. 3 Socrates

Socrates' writings make a small column of the foundation, though one worthy of brief mention. In some of his writings, Socrates discussed a being, his daimon as he called it, that spoke to him alone. Though today the daimon would be put down as a conscience or "voice in the back of the head", Socrates believed that his daimon was a gift from the gods to him alone. His daimon gave him advice, like our daemons do, that he and even his friends came to value highly.

No. 4 Carl Jung

Unfortunately, I cannot claim to be an expert (or anything close to an expert) on the psychologist Carl Jung's theories. My knowledge of these is basic to a fault, so some of the things that I discuss here may be plain wrong. If you notice this, please shoot me a comment and correct me.

In my view, there are two aspects of Jungian theory that can be applied to daemonism, the animus/anima and active imagination.

The animus and anima are, according to Jung, the male or female aspect of our personality. Women have a male side, the animus, while men have a female side, the anima. Jung encouraged contact with these aspects of ourselves in order to achieve full self-awareness and acceptance.

Another concept is that of active imagination. I have only, so far, seen it in the context of dream exploration, where the dreamer revisits a dream to continue it and better understand its meaning. However, the way in which Jung writes about it is highly reminiscent of the daemian's concept of projection. It is the rejection of all feelings of embarrassment and silliness to basically day dream and talk to imaginary friends as a child does.

Followers of Jungian theory, like daemians, can achieve entertainingly high levels of confidence and self-awareness trough these small changes in perception.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Long Time no Post

Yep, it's been ages, and bigbig news to all of my nonexistant readers.
*bigger fanfare*
We're settled!

Huzzah, hoorah, and whatnot.
I've been writing about it so much in places other than the web that I've quite run out of steam, unfortunately. I'll give it a go, though.

Well, I was bored on vacation with a rare opportunity to go online, so I scuttled off to TDF, as usual. We were in Arizona, and Sef had been trying out all of the local forms, for the flavor so to speak. We did raven, skink, coyote (briefly, we've never been much into canids), etc. The ones that we really liked were horned lizard (friggin wicked!) and desert bighorn. Sheep are obviously not me, but we looked up the analysis, anyway. No.

Then, for the hell of it, I clicked the caribou link (caribou have long been a favorite). Surprisingly, it was pretty accurate. I looked briefly for reindeer or caribou other than Peary's, but TDF didn't have more. That was when I think elk caught my eye.

Now, I'd looked at the elk analysis before, but not with a very open mind. I'd dismissed it as "not me at all", and blown on by. But this time, for some reason, everything clicked. It was so flipping perfect that I could've fallen off my chair.

We were hesitant with accepting it, at first. After all, banded mongoose had seemed pretty damn good at the time. But this one just felt right. I'd never felt anything like it in my life. I know that sounds horribly cliché, but it's true. Maybe I'd been using too many sharpies, but that's exactly how it felt. And it's kept feeling that way.

The more I research elk, the more I can find similarities. And it's utterly ridiculous that an animal's beaviour should be applied to human personalities, but it works. With a little tweak of the mind, a flick of the imagination switch, I can see myself exactly as I am in this beautiful animal.

So, Sef and were happily settled on July 14 as a Rocky Mountain elk soul. There have been snags, but most are worked out. I'm now able to categorize my friends into "bull" and "cow" friends, deending on their importance to me and their role in my life. I also have a strange and entirely unscientific explanation for why I get so many headaches, go through periods of intense hatred for my best friends, and like the odd bite of grass for lunch.

Oh, and I'm getting a bugle ringtone for my phone. Check it out.
http://www.elktalkin.com/index.html

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Fanfare!

Huzzah for discoveries! I found this little jewel of a thread on TDF http://daemonpage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6864&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=predator+prey&start=15
The Predator/Prey Thread!

Yes, yes. So, the more I read, the more convinced that my soul is both predatory and prey. I've got traits of both. And so, with this miraculous find, I am one tiny step closer to self-discovery and settlement! Cheer!