Currently on a plane as of writing this, though this will be posted later. Something I had barely considered before was just how different mundane things would have to be in a world where dæmons are naturally outside of the body in a corporeal form. As I’ve been working more with my own dæmon and perceive her more solidly outside of me I’ve found many situations are inconvenient at best.
My dæmon settled as a Canadian Lynx, which is not a small cat whatsoever. I wouldn’t change a thing about her but things would definitely be easier if she was smaller. Right now she has to lay in the middle of the plane’s aisle because there’s barely any space by my feet even with an empty seat next to me. This sort of packed space is a huge pain and something I can’t see working for most people.
The airships in Lyra’s world are definitely better suited for dæmons, with them being less crowded and more spacious overall. I’d much prefer to fly in one of those. If Fallon were corporeal we probably couldn’t fly in a plane at all unless given some sort of accommodations. We really don’t like being more than a couple feet away from each other either so there’s not many options.
Everything in this world is just a little too crowded and a little too narrow I’ve noticed. it’s just somewhat annoying to me but would be a complete mess if my dæmon was corporeal.
Later additions:
I ended up completely forgetting about this post until I was on my way back but my annoyance only grew during the trip. The rental car we had didn’t have enough space in front of the passenger seat, which is where Fallon normally sits, so she had to sit in the back instead. I’m back on the plane and while I love the window seat it means there’s absolutely no space whatsoever for her. If people flew in a plane like this in Lyra’s world everyone with large dæmons would have to basically carry them in their arms and people would constantly be bumping into each other’s dæmons.
If Fallon were corporeal I’d probably have to be given special accommodations to even somewhat comfortable on a plane. I’d have to sit in the very back or up in first class like many service dog teams have to, and flight crew would need a briefing on it(assuming I was the only one) to ensure they act appropriately. Even though corporeal dæmons are one of my biggest dreams I can’t imagine anyone with a large dæmon being comfortable in this world that way.
The one benefit of this world is dæmons not being naturally corporeal means they don’t have to abide by typical spacial rules. If a door is shut right behind me Fallon doesn’t get stuck, for example. She often does comply with spacial rules and feels solid, but she’s not actually bound to them.
This is a replica Harris’s Hawk tail feather made out of a domestic turkey feather. It’s absolutely beautifully made and it was painted incredibly realistically.
I bought this earlier in the month and it’s perhaps one of the best purchases I’ve made recently. I’ve been thinking about it for what feels like over a year but just haven’t gotten around to it.
The reason why I got this feather was that I wanted to have something physical that symbolizes Jonah and our soulbond. Since his dæmon is a Harris’s hawk and feather ornaments between close relationships(family, partners, friends, QPRs, etc) are a common cultural practice for his species it felt right. Traditionally it’s their own feathers but obviously that’s not an option. If I knew how I could make a replica though maybe. Not entirely sure what I’ll do with it yet but most likely wear it as a necklace sometimes and otherwise keep it somewhere safe.
I made a lot of mistakes with our relationship and I’m eternally grateful that I was given another chance. We seem to finally be getting close to how we were before. When I first thought about buying a feather we weren’t talking and I didn’t think it’d be well received. I’m glad that now I’m able to do things like this. Jonah means so much to me and I like having something that reaffirms her presence in my life.
Yes she is from another world and also isn’t a daytripper so I can’t give her gifts in the traditional sense, but I still see this as a gift. There’s some other things I’d like to get eventually but that are probably way out of my budget. We’ll see.
Hi there! I found your most recent post about having a dæmon on my dash with no context, and even looking deeper into your blog, I still don't understand. What is a dæmon?
Dæmons are a concept originating from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, which is really the best resource on the topic(as well as an absolutely amazing trilogy). I suggest you give them a read, both because they’re great books and that’s probably the best way of understanding what dæmons are. I’ve been turning it into a legitimate spiritual practice. There is a preexisting concept called dæmonism, but I personally find it to not fit my experience or represent dæmons properly.
Dæmons are a part of a person that has its own autonomy and conscious experience. They’re typically the opposite sex/gender(though unclear which matters more) and take the form of an animal that best represents that person and their personality(for example someone who is very loyal and hard working may have a dog dæmon). Having a dæmon doesn’t make someone plural, as dæmons exist outside one’s mind. And everyone has a dæmon even if they’re unaware of it, so it’s the normal state of being.
Dæmons are a vital part of a person that they rarely can live without. If you were to get rid of your dæmon, you’d be a shell of yourself or even die. They’re like a spiritual organ, that’s the best analogy I could think of. You need them and they need you. Working with dæmons is incredibly fulfilling and helpful in daily life. It takes a lot of work but for me it has been immensely rewarding.
If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask. This is one of my favorite topics to talk about.
I still wonder whether I should consider myself alterhuman solely for knowing my dæmon or not. Of course whether to use a label or not is someone’s personal choice(I’m alterhuman for other reasons yet don’t use the term as a label), but just ignoring that part for now. And also ignoring dæmonism being an accepted subset of alterhumanity since I’m not a daemian.
I believe everyone has a dæmon, so simply having a dæmon isn’t the answer. Not having a dæmon is actually what would make someone alterhuman in this world, not having one. I wouldn’t be alterhuman in the way groups like otherkin are either. Instead of an addition to the natural human experience I instead experience an alteration of it.
Hey! I recently got into HDM for the first time and I've been looking into daemons out of curiosity, since I find the concept really cool. Found your blog and thought I'd ask: how does this work for you? Judging by what I've seen, you say you're in contact with and aware of your daemon and have built some belief system around the whole thing. I wanna ask about it without sounding like an asshole, so please keep in mind I genuinely don't mean to insult or invalidate or anything. I'm only trying to understand.
How do you see your daemon? Is it an in your mind's eye thing where you kinda just know what she'd be doing and you imagine her in the room? Do you consciously have to think about her in order to see her? Is it kind of how we used to make imaginary friends/have those things run outside of the car on car rides as kids? Do you have to give yourself a second to tell your brain "okay, I want to be aware of what she'd be doing right now" and then see her? Or is it a literal "there's an animal in the room with me and I 100% see her with my physical eyes" thing? Do you see her all the time? If so, how did you teach yourself to do that? I'd love explore that and see if I believe in it and get to know my daemon if one steps forward, but how do I know I'm not making it up 'cause I like a certain animal, y'know? At times I wonder if my daemon would even have a settled form after all the stuff I've been through + my relationship with my own self/mind/life.
And if your daemon's interested in answering some questions from her POV: first of all, hi. Second, what's it like to be a non-physical being roaming around like this? Can you feel objects? Walk through walls? Is it selective? Can you see things regular people can't see (spirits, auras, energy, other people's daemons, etc)? What happens when you're in a crowded room or bus? Do people kinda just walk through you and if so, what does that feel like? Were there times you thought you'd settle as something else? What's the feeling of settling like for a daemon?
Have you two tried to experiment? Like, if someone were to pick a card while your eyes are closed with the intention of her seeing it, would she be able to tell you which one? Is it possible for her to remember a certain event from your past while you don't remember it at all?
Hope the questions were okay to ask (feel free to ignore this if not, totally cool). I've always been very curious spiritually, so I find this pretty neat.
Thank you for the questions! Don’t worry about sounding like an asshole or anything like that I’m always happy to answer questions. Feel free to send in more asks or send a PM as well if you have follow up questions.
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When it comes to seeing her, I don’t see her with my physical vision. Overall my perception of her isn’t very visual and more tactile/“feeling” based. In my mind’s eye I definitely the better way to describe it. And I’m sort of always passively aware of her but sometimes it’s more intense than others, like focusing on specific parts of your body. For example, you normally aren’t very aware of your nose but are probably very aware of it now that I mentioned it. Sometimes if I’m tired or feeling unwell it takes a moment to know where she is or what she’s doing, but normally I know right away.
I mostly taught myself through a TON of work over almost three years, through I’m sure progress could’ve been made much sooner. My life was a complete mess for a long time and multiple times I had to put my dæmon work aside to focus on other things. The more practice the easier it is to perceive your dæmon and the more clear communication is. Psychedelics are likely a useful tool as I had partaken in some the night that I finally spoke to Fallon, plus my fiance has had similar results with his dæmon, but I don’t think there’s any true cheat code and can’t recommend it. I honestly wish I kept better notes because things were too chaotic for me to remember what I did at the start.
I figured out Fallon settled as a Canadian Lynx in a fairly strange way. I honestly had no clue what she might be and thought some type of bird for a while. When I was 15 I had a strange obsession with lynxes for a few months that came out of nowhere and then when I started actually theorizing on dæmons being real I had recurring dreams about them. While now I’d say they’re my favorite animal I didn’t really have any thoughts one way or another so it was very strange. And later doing research on them I noticed a lot of species traits lined up with my own personality traits, which is what I primarily base form analysis on. I’d say don’t worry too much about form yet, though having an idea of that can be veryhelpful.
Now for Fallon’s side of things. Keep in mind I type for her since unlike plurality she has no control over my body or things like that. It’s more like I’m transcribing what she tells me to say.
“It’s hard to describe what being a nonphysical entity is for people who have a physical body. Unless you’ve done things like astral projection or experienced other forms of OBE’s it’d probably be nonsensical. I can “touch” physical objects but I can’t interact with them on a physical level, though that’s something we want to test out in the future. The only limits I’m truly bound to is my distance from Alethios, besides that I’m not strictly bound by any physical or spacial rules. I am able to sense things on nonphysical level such as spirits or auras, though Alethios is also quite gifted in this area and we’re pretty equally matched. I cannot see other people’s dæmons by default, since in this world most dæmons reside internally. We have a post about what traveling in things like cars and planes is like, but as a short answer: it’s absolutely horrible. People walking through me happens very rarely but it’s uncomfortable.” - Fallon
“On the topic of settling, I have no clue about that or how it feels or works. We theorize that I most likely settled when we were 14, but at that time I resided internally and Alethios didn’t know dæmons were real. I have no clue what it’s like to change form or how it feels to settle. We think that one of the last forms I would’ve changed to before settling would’ve been a Common Raven, since while close to settling dæmons tend to stick to a few closely related species, birds are often an exception if they settle as a non-bird form. But that’s all speculation and there’s no way of really knowing for sure.” - Fallon
We haven’t tried many experiments yet, though I really do love your idea. I have quite good intuition so a big problem would be somehow cutting me off from accidentally figuring it out anyways, but I’ll plan something out. Our memories seem to be shared, though I’m often sleep deprived or sick and she helps me when my brain doesn’t work all too well. I’ve had many times when I’ve forgotten small things and she’s helped me remember. How exactly memory and information sharing works with dæmons is unclear but it really fascinates me.
