A-Z, D For Daemon.

First of all, since reading (watching) the book 'Northern Lights' (AKA the movie 'The Golden Compass') by Philip Pullman I like the word 'daemon' and the way it's written. I like the imagination to see my inner spirit in form of an animal walking right next to my side. A friend and I had already discussed what kind of animal our own daemon would be. In my case - and I'm pretty sure about that - it would be a predatory feline, a black panther or an Indian tiger or a snow leopard maybe.

Anyway, I get a little sidetracked from my original thought to that particular catchword. But only a little, I still want to talk about inner forces, spirits or daemons.

A couple of years ago, during my NLP training (NLP = NeuroLinguistic Programming) we had a section where we tried to get in contact with some inner parts of ourselves and visualize them. To give you an example, I'd met my creativity in form of a flying, white Pegasus.

But I also made the acquaintance of a unique power within me, so very endlessly strong and powerful. This power manifested in the form of a dragon sleeping in its cave. (Do you still believe in coincidences when I say that my Chinese zodiac is a Fire Dragon?!?) Once awaken it wasn't clear if this power was good or simply disastrous. I really feared that it becomes something more like a Balrog (a creature from 'Lord of the Rings'), nothing but fire and ashes and darkness.

Then - somehow, don't ask how - I forgot the existence of that force, but that doesn't mean it had disappeared. Oh no, not at all!

In the meantime I tried several relaxing techniques and my absolute favorite became 'Chakra Chants', where you concentrate on your 7 energy centers within your body. One, the 3rd Chakra is located in the Solar Plexus. And every time I focused on this area it got really warm, almost hot.

First I had no explanation - remember I'd totally forgotten my inner dragon. Then I found another wonderful Chakra meditation and then like a revelation I remembered what I once knew when I heard those lines:

'From fire to water to earth. Here the divine spark of consciousness ignites the fires of our will to burn through resistance and vitalize the entire system. Pulsating flames of energy enlivens to awaken our power to burn with purpose, to strengthen our will. We keep the flames all its trials and tribulations as we burn through blocks into ever greater freedom and power. Let this fire burn itself out, that power must be tamed (...)' 

(from 'The Human Body Energy Centers)

To come to the point, it's still there, that inner daemon, my fire dragon. And I came to the conclusion that it's a positive energy, the counterpart to my dark side that currently accesses my brain and soul. Somehow, that's really good to know...