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[Hazel XIII]

I don't really get headmates. I understand what they are, but I don't understand how to put them in my head. I project my characters that i use when I write, but they never speak. They do what I imagin them to do and then they go away. Ex is the only other voice in my head.

[Aura]

I have quite a few voices in my head. I have Orion, my daemon, and some other random charries that started to mould and stayed in my head.

[Cinereus]

I don't really get headmates. I understand what they are, but I don't understand how to put them in my head. I project my characters that i use when I write, but they never speak. They do what I imagin them to do and then they go away. Ex is the only other voice in my head.

Headmates are pretty different for everyone - I tend to think of them as a spectrum, where you have "imaginary friend voluntary headmates" on one side and "nearly multiple personality diagnosis worthy headmates" on the other. For most people they're in between, that is, semi-autonomous imaginary friends. So you can kind of conceive of them and create them, but they become headmates when they take on a life of their own, whether by your own imagination or by their will. AW, my main headmate, for instance, is semi-autonomous leaning toward autonomous. I don't really dictate what she does and says, I just recognize that I created her as a personification of various insecurities that haunt me. Whereas I also have fun mostly non-autonomous to semi-autonomous headmates, who are much more fleeting and controllable. The main indication though is when you start to have conversations with a character even when you're not writing about them or whatever. I had one of my characters as a semi-autonomous headmate for a while, my first headmate, and I first realized he had a life of his own when I had a very detailed debate with him over whether his favorite color was blue or green. XD

[mokapi]

My girl Sagolin is very quite and solemn most of the time; she's not a mouthy creature, nor is she funny at all. It doesn't mean she's an "old soul" (she's not my soul, she is my voice of reason). It means that that's the way she balances me and keeps me stable. It's all about what you need. You are just you, and your daemon is just part of you.

Ohhh, see I've kind of been under the impression that your daemon is the opposite of you to keep you balanced, which is why I figured that Les would be carefree, friendly, playful, etc. He's not like that. At all. He has more glares for people than I do XD

Headmates are pretty different for everyone - I tend to think of them as a spectrum, where you have "imaginary friend voluntary headmates" on one side and "nearly multiple personality diagnosis worthy headmates" on the other. For most people they're in between, that is, semi-autonomous imaginary friends. So you can kind of conceive of them and create them, but they become headmates when they take on a life of their own, whether by your own imagination or by their will. AW, my main headmate, for instance, is semi-autonomous leaning toward autonomous. I don't really dictate what she does and says, I just recognize that I created her as a personification of various insecurities that haunt me. Whereas I also have fun mostly non-autonomous to semi-autonomous headmates, who are much more fleeting and controllable. The main indication though is when you start to have conversations with a character even when you're not writing about them or whatever. I had one of my characters as a semi-autonomous headmate for a while, my first headmate, and I first realized he had a life of his own when I had a very detailed debate with him over whether his favorite color was blue or green. XD

I have some of those. XD My main headmate is a huge wolf named Gavin, and besides the form and the pitch of the voice he and Les are almost identical in behavior. I feel like I almost have one for every category of emotions- does anyone else feel that way/do that? They are WEIRD animal types too. :3

[Cinereus]

I have some of those. XD My main headmate is a huge wolf named Gavin, and besides the form and the pitch of the voice he and Les are almost identical in behavior. I feel like I almost have one for every category of emotions- does anyone else feel that way/do that? They are WEIRD animal types too. :3

I have a rather gruff dire wolf named Jarvis who hangs around in my head sometimes. He's a fun one. XD

I distinguish Mar from my headmates rather easily, because he kind of takes on the roll of the peacekeeper in my head. He generally ignores them and keeps them in place if they get too rowdy. And he and AW hate each other. My emotions aren't really separated into headmates, but I do have headmates that come out more when I'm experiencing particular emotions. AW when I'm insecure, John when I'm all gung-ho, Jarvis or yet-unnamed-African-Civet when I'm mad, etc.

As far as how Mar's personality relates to mine, he's a more flippant, confident version of me - on most occasions he's pretty silly, but he'll get srs-faced when I'm avoiding things or worrying about things or need to go to bed (NOW, might I add?). Case and point. Anyway, I wouldn't say he so much balances me out as he is just whatever I need him to be at that moment in time.

[JadeiteWren]

*First Post*

I've just really gotten into this though I've been looking into this for a few months (I tried getting into Spirit Guides a year ago but it confused me a lot. Plus I can't talk to my best friend because she thinks daemons are anti-christian and she thinks they're the same thing as demons). I can only really talk to my daemon when it's quiet since I get too distracted with the noise but I'm trying to work on it.
So far my daemon Azella (Thought of it randomly while lying in bed talking to my Daemon.) seems to favor the form of a black/dark midnight blue Raven but I'm just paranoid because I always hear a feminine voice when Azella speaks. I keep looking it up since all websites since I've read say iit's really rare but all the websites I find also seem to go "Lesbian! Gay! Homo! Bi!" which I am none of. I am a straight girl.
I've tried picturing Azella with a guy [Much to her dismay] but it just feels awkward... Could someone provide more info/insight on same sex daemons for me?

[mokapi]

I thought the same thing as you, Callisto; I thought that having a same-sex daemon meant homosexuality but was recently told otherwise on TDF.

And my boyfriend's daemon is male. :3 So I think it may be a comfort sort of thing? He's not comfortable having a girl in his head, I suppose. XD

[JadeiteWren]

Azella has a comforting motherly voice. I feel safe listening to her and when I force the male voice upon her she sounds a bit gruff and it gives me the creeps. It just sounds way to forced.
But I agree with comfort thing. I like having the soothing voice helping me. ^-^ And thank you Mokapi

[Seraphwolf]

Hi Callisto, nice to meet you! Mokapi's right, daemon's sex or perceived gender has nothing to do with your sexuality.

I think where the confusion comes in is that the daemonism we practise here was inspired partly by Pullman's His Dark Materials books, which might be where you heard of it first. We get a lot of out terminology from there. However over time the community has recognised that we aren't all "Mary Malone"s from the book, learning a technique to "see" our daemon; how could it be, we're making it up, and so the concept has evolved. A lot of constraints that might be canon in Pullman's world are removed for us, especially when it comes to projecting your daemon. Buuut there are many threads on forums about this that practise a 'fluffy' version of what we do,(who can blame them? It's a fantastic idea and everyone starts off fluffy) imposing the book canon on the process and are conversely very lax about what settled form you pick, opting for lone wolves and the like.

So yes. xD There are fluffy/roleplaying sites for this, and there are a few places like here and TDF and it's other language counterparts that discuss the philosophy in depth.

Long story short - if it sounds like an unnecessary or almost supernatural constraint, it probably is. ;D

And OH YEAH Hi, I'm Seraphwolf/Lottie, and my daemon is Quikfen the rex rabbit. =)

[Eveningsdawn]

I see you too gave into the pets, Lottie. I HAVE PONIES
THEY ARE SO CUTE