I’m not going to try and explain the strange and wonderful world of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials here as it’s vast, complex, and can be quite bewildering. Rather, I’m just going to latch onto one item of it as suits this blog, namely the notion that we all have an animal spirit representative or daemon, which is kind of an external soul never far from you which is intelligent, talks, interacts with you, and can be seen by others, as well as by other daemons. Although part of your soul, these daemons also have distinct personalities, opinions, and feelings. They’re not pets, and you don’t want others to pet them…that’s a serious transgression and violation of etiquette that’s simply not done! Furthermore, the form of your daemon can transform or shift when you’re a child, assuming a permanent form when you reach puberty. Then the “tiger in your tank” (dated advertising reference) is yours for the duration…
A British fantasy adventure series based on the novels by Pullman and available on HBO, His Dark Materials depicts a Harry Potter-esque kind of world sometimes referred to as a Narnia for atheists. Set in a past kind of alternative universe, there are airships and other steampunk kinds of touches. The notion of daemons exists in other cultures and in their literature as well. In our universe, daemons are said to be invisible and internalized. Socrates, however, is said to have seen and talked to his…but he always was a wise guy!
FOXSYLVANIA 