"I'm Telling You, It's A Real Animal!"

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Today, I’m seeing a shiny meme on Find Your Dæmon. For those of you who don’t know, a dæmon, in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, is an animal manifestation of one’s soul. When you are a child your dæmon is ever-changing; when you hit a certain point in puberty, it settles down into one animal form that somehow reflects your personality.

 

I considered doing this meme, but I realized that it would be silly, because I know what my dæmon is—I knew almost soon as I found out what one was, years ago. It is, unfortunately, what ursulav would dub a Charismatic Mammal, but it has slightly less charisma than what you might expect, and it goddamn fits.

 

My dæmon is a puma.*

 

I’ve always been a cat person—not just a person who prefers cats, but a person for whom the descriptive term “cat” applies—so I knew that I was some sort of cat. At first I thought it might be an outright lion—that was the only confusion I had, between lion and mountain lion. Come on—lions get along better in small communities of mostly females, and the females are grouchy. They sleep 18 hours a day. And they’re carnivores. Sounds an awful lot like me. But while I’m built stocky and less than sleek and graceful like, say, a margay, I realized I certainly couldn’t be counted as a Big Cat. And therefore, I realized that the puma—a big cat who isn’t actually a Big Cat, who cannot roar but who can yowl** and purr—shared something with me. And while I try to be multicultural, in many respects I’m aggressively American, especially as far as my aesthetic sense of nature is concerned—I love the puma’s habitats, all of them. And I am a predator, but not the dominant predator anywhere I go.

 

And therefore, my dæmon, my animal avatar, is a puma.

 

I still sleep like a lion, however. Or perhaps a koala. Or a sloth. I am the sort of puma that would grow moss ...

So tell me, my friends ... ignore the meme. What, according to you, is your dæmon? And why?


Discussion Question: Do dæmons depend on the region the person lives in? Do you have to know what the animal is to have it as a dæmon? Does someone who knows about more animals get a wider variety of dæmon possibilities? And what about mythical animals? Can you have those?

 

 

*Or a cougar, or a mountain lion, or a catamount, etc., etc. …

 

**There’s a reason one of their names is the “mountain screamer”: although they don’t make them often, the noises they make are positively blood-curdling. As I’ve mentioned before when talking about sound effects, pumas don’t sound like big roary cats or scary bears or predators, or even like Chewbacca. They sound like giant mutant housecats from SPACE.

Comments

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Chameleon.

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

Most likely a cat of some kind, but I'm not altogether sure what.

Either that or a magpie.

[placetohide.livejournal.com]

Mine's an Amarok.

UUhhh.

[bluetara2020.livejournal.com]

No idea what mine would be. But I suppose one day I'll find out.

Or something.

And I don't think that daemons are dependant on geography (though it probably wouldn't hurt and would be more prevalant.) or knowledge for that matter.

And if daemons aren't dependant on geography and you subscribe to the belief that mythological animals are just on another plane of existance, which goes into theoretical quantum physics (I think), than I daresay that mythological creatures would also be possible...though less likely to physically manifest.

[enigmania.livejournal.com]

Apparently, according to Uwe, I am a degu.

Which actually makes sense, given how much I identified with my pet gerbils as a kid. Huh.

[lookingforwater.livejournal.com]

Where is the meme?

[die-monster.livejournal.com]

Definitely a canine, and probably a dog. Loyal, fun-loving, lazy, greedy, compassionate, omnivorous, and I enjoy riding in the backs of pickups. Har.

[shadesofmauve]

Ooh...your list of questions sound very like those I've been asking myself about the weyrr (were) creatures on my world. Their shape is supposed to relate to their nature, similarly to a daemon. I've always loved the deamon concept, except for the servant/dog thing.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in the supernatural or even the mystical.

Having said that, surely you can guess what my spirit animal is? I got into Wicca for a little while between losing christianity and finding atheism, which is when I 'found' him.
Oddly enough, now that I think spirit animals are as much bunk as any of the other trappings of any religion, I find blackbirds watching me on a regular basis, and feel invisible ones perching on my shoulder issuing edicts, pronouncements, warnings and judgements upon me all too often.
I figure it's an odd little neurosis, but hardly a dangerous one. :)

Btw, physically and psychologically I am more of a lion. Very much a Leo, you know? Which is, once again, so much flowery words with no substance. :)

[gondolinchick01.livejournal.com]

You're sure your daemon isn't a warthog?

:P In all seriousness, that really fits. I cannot for the life of me, however, think of what my daemon would be. Many people have tried to give me one, with little success--I've heard variously a cat, a chinchilla, a rabbit and a parrot and have no idea who to believe.

[crazykawaii.livejournal.com]

Red-tailed hawk.

The question that always interested me (before I read The Amber Spyglass, anyways) is when exactly does your daemon settle? I figured puberty = physical = getting your period (I never thought what the equivalent might be for boys). Never considered otherwise until I asked a 16-year-old friend who said his hadn't settled yet.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

...I got an Ocelot. Is a very lovely fellow.

I think I'd probably really end up with a small tweety bird or a gerbil, in truth.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I'm some sort of cat. Definitely.

And I have lots of random puma trivia if you like--my Sibling was, until fairly recently (as I may have mentioned), a zookeeper, and her former zoo has two pumas. So yeah, lots of puma trivia.

Like, for instance, they like watermelon. And they chirp when they're happy.

[viizou.livejournal.com]

I'm really not sure what to answer. I'm too clumsy to be a cat, too cuddly to be a rabbit, not frisky enough to be a dog, and I'm too meek to be one of the big predators. All I know is it'd have to be a land-based animal: I'm not particularly fond of heights and I haven't swam in years.

Is there an land animal out there that's on the quiet side, grows cuddly once it gets used to you and tends to bump into things a lot? And is a little odd if you stare at it too long?