Daimonic Reality A Field Guide To The Otherworld – Patrick Harpur (1)

The “water-horses” of European lakes from Italy to Siberia give way to immense humped serpents — which, in turn, reveal shaggy horse-like manes and blazing red eyes. “Fluid and elusive like the elements which shelter them, the lake serpents are, for the [American] Indians, beings which go through different metamorphoses. The waters where they live are endowed with the property of changing animals which drown into monsters.””* Thus do traditional cultures recognize in their myths the power of Imagination to transform the ordinary into the uncanny, the supernatural.

From Alaska to New Mexico the belief in a single huge, horned water-serpent is complemented by a host of hybrid beasts mirroring the animals of dry land — water-tigers, water-panthers, water-grizzlies, water-bison, water-dogs. Fairy glamour and pishogue Sometimes the water-monster becomes personified, as if to step out of its natural element were to fix it in human shape.

The Scottish water-horse, the Kelpie, emerges in the shape of a hairy man in order to drag passers-by back into the depths — “at Loch Barrachan in Sutherland, for example, only the clothes of two missing fishermen were found on the banks, surrounded by large hoof-prints.”~ In 1938, Kari Ivarsdotter saw a Nykkjen (a water-man) in the Myrkevatn (“dark lake”) on the Norwegian west coast island of Hareidland. She thought at first it was an upturned boat moving through the water, but then the Nykkjen raised its head and shook the water from its dripping beard just as water-horses shake their wet manes.

Kari fled.”° She had strayed from the usual well-worn path to the remote and wild mountain spot (she was looking for missing sheep). Thus one could say, along with Meurger, that her vision of the menacing water-man acted as a warning of the dangers that await those who trespass on the wilderness. This sociological reading of the event suggests that she misperceived some banal object because she was aware of having broken a taboo and so expected retribution. Her sighting was “group induced,’ an “act of social allegiance.””’ Alternatively, one could say that Kari had strayed into a place of enchantment where for a moment her unconscious imaginative life had merged with that great Imagination which is congruent with the landscape.

In this view of the world, the notion of subjective misperception is reversed: Imagining Things the object itself is deceptive — altered, as the Irish were wont to say, by fairy “glamour” so that it suddenly appears uncanny, not right.

“… with the ancient philosopher, the deity is an immense and perpetually exuberant fountain whose streams originally filled and continually replenish the world with life. Hence the universe contains in its ample bosom all general natures, divinities visible and invisible, the illustrious race of daemons, the noble army of exalted souls, and man rendered happy by wisdom and virtue.” (Thomas Taylor) Contents ACR W LOU SIN CIES s cccsseteeccncereevccosrianessvessrsisievoconseanscannsmnndcanensescede’ Xx PREC OAUCH Os oes ccteecewasssapuecosacoatsvavasceceacenvavqenvadieUsvaaprerasedirencaielpayasene xi UFOs and fairy lights — Witches — The anthropologists v. the Gusii — Ancestral spirits — The cultural context A Modern Mvth — The collective unconscious — The soul — Dreams Aliens and Fairies ……….:::……-seescevscscocsosscncnecencsssseoceesssccecsvacevse 23 Prefatory sightings — Alien classification — Fairy classification — The Christian-scientific view — Psychic reality — Plato’s daimons DATION bsaswosscscaronscrssscenvouseyerscocay seep esasupuseasesaneasaamacmsnantaneeelinns 37 Guardian angels — Personal daimons — Helping spirits — Two horrors — Complexes, archetypes, myths — The Soul of the World — Animism A Little: History of Dattmons………cseossnnssasvramonaratinceagieteanenssee 31 Demons — The Longaevi — Reason and the decline of daimons — Spiritualism Black dogs — Mystery cats — Kaptars, Yowies, Yetis — Bigfoot and fairies Part Two Vision TS Ce os cs escgvesur eam ansosaos se nersousanasirnnatisiecrepaiinne NOTE DN EIS 85 Misidentification — Projection — Paranoia — Delusion and revelation vii vili Contents Our Ladies — The spinning sun — The feminine principle — White ladies — The banshee — Phantoms of the road D Teast TRS cecscacscepcesconspuerercasenneocsrevrensesenniinnrausonavansennsesss 115 Primary and secondary imagination — Alchemical imagination — Imagination and soul — Myths, stories, hypotheses — A note on lake monsters — Fairy glamour and pishogue LO Darmonid THACES …….ccrnrneoreoonnnonsassaa toca Qrovsnsetenis issanzaswelawewsrsets 133 A close encounter — A fairy shoe — UFO relics — Treasures — An alien exchange — Gifts of the BVM — Photographs — Circular marks Al!

MGR GIBS ccceercerrreccasea cewewvapeassesveewuscisese scsnsowsavanaceacncenasacSebeehe 145 Crop circles — Causality and synchronicity — Sympathy and analogy LD SHUCHUILES cei ccescaosnstucavensusanersonennncosspsonseasouncsasezayvacsenitedetrereves 157 The structure of Imagination — Nature vs. Culture — Literalism as idolatry — Hoaxes — Daimons and gods — The Trickster god V3 The OMerwar sn.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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