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Martens
Japanese Marten



Soul

Demons | Daemon, Greek Mythology | Daemon, Book Version | Familiar


Korat Cat





A dictionary describes the soul as: "The spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe." Scientists might place the word "soul" parallel to the word "mind". A soul is something that describes what gives a living being its life -- in some cases, this includes emotions, personality, and imagination. Phillip Pullman creates a book series, His Dark Materials, set n a world where the soul is represented by a corporeal "daemon" that takes the shape of an animal.

These days, the word "daemon" is considered simply an alternate spelling of "demon", and while demons are evil, the original concept of the daemon was not. Originally, the Greek word "daimon" did not have its roots in the belief of evil beings, and in fact these beings were believed to be good-spirited beings distributing riches or happiness among humans.
( “A special being watches over each individual, a daimon who has obtained the person at his birth by lot, is an idea which we find in Plato, undoubtedly from earlier tradition. The famous, paradoxical saying of Heraclitus is already directed against such a view: 'character is for man his daimon.'” - Burkert )

The daemon of Pullman's story could be based on the idea of familiar spirits. Familiars help and guide either witches or cunning-folk, and while they were thought to be evil when accompanying witches, they were seen as benevolent when working with cunning-folk. The former were often called demons.


Today, there are communities of people who believe they are accompanied by an incorporeal daemon, and while they take some of their ideas from Pullman, they use a lot of the ideas from their origin. Settling happens when the person themselves has stopped changing but can be interrupted and repeated with a different form if something changes their personality again. This is unlike Pullman's idea, as the "settling" happens at around the time of puberty and does not happen again. In order to discover a person's settled form, they analyze the animals that seem like they might fit the personality, using abstract or defined comparisons between animal behavior and human personality. When one has confidence, or perhaps when first beginning, they will make a "reverse analysis" where they will analyze their own personality and ask for suggestions into what their form may be.

The proper etiquette between humans and daemons are different than in the book, likely because they are non-corporeal. There is considered to be no point in speaking with another person's daemon even if you know them, because the daemon is supposedly always agreed on their human's opinion.