A daimonic book

"Daimonic Reality" is a difficult book to review. It had an almost "daimonic" effect on me: paradoxical, Trickster-like, annoyingly incomprehensible - yet, somehow profound. I saw the book years ago on Amazon, but was misled by the subtitle into thinking that it was just another compilation of fairy encounters or monster lore. At the time, I couldn't care less. Recently, another Amazon reviewer noticed that I had belatedly struck up an interest in matters crypto-zoological and Fortean, and recommended Harpur's book as an advanced course. Of course, I understand what Harpur is saying, but I can't *relate* to his paradoxical, subjectivist and poetic form of spirituality. I'm apparently too little of a poet, and my favourite field guide to the Otherworld remains John Michael Greer's "Monsters"...

Patrick Harpur's spiritual vision is based on Neo-Platonism, Hermeticism and Jungianism. W B Yeats is frequently referenced. "Daimonic Reality" is an attempt to come to terms with fairies, UFO-s, lake monsters, ghosts and other paranormal entities. Who are they? Where do they come from? And what on earth do they want? Harpur believes that paranormal creatures are "daimons". They are temporary, personalized manifestations of an impersonal reality that could be called the World Soul, the collective unconscious or Imagination (in Coleridge's sense). Daimons are real, but not *literally* real. Rather, they are "daimonically" or metaphorically real. Daimons are both physical and spiritual, which explains why UFO-s, Bigfoot or fairies sometimes leave "physical" evidence, while nevertheless remaining highly elusive. Sometimes, daimons work through people, possessing them and forcing them to carry out paradoxical, seemingly meaningless actions, including hoaxes. Thus, Harpur regards crop circles as "daimonic", despite many such circles being the products of human pranksters.

The nature of daimons is fundamentally contradictory. They aren't literally real, but insist on being treated *as if* they were. Yet, if we forget the rules of the game and start regarding daimons as if they were *actually*, literally real, the result might be possession and madness. Daimons can be both divine and devilish, often at the same time. They are both "inside" us, as dream images or psychological archetypes, and "outside" us as seemingly objective entities. They are not our projections, however - in a sense, *we* are their projections or rather projections of the World Soul trapped in a literalism which is really just one perspective among many. With the aid of Imagination, we can overcome "single vision" and glimpse the real, underlying meaning of Nature. Even classical misidentifications (Venus is believed to be a UFO, a log is interpreted as a lake monster) can be daimonically real. From the perspective of Imagination, Venus could be both a dead planet and a goddess...or a UFO.

But what is the point of it all? To Harpur, daimons are the only mediators between us and the Divine. In a sense, they are the gods, initiating us into the World Soul. Daimons have an uncanny propensity to show themselves to non-believers or unimaginative people, as a potent reminder of the reality of the Otherworld. The worst thing we can do is to ignore them (as modern materialism does) or portray them as literal demons (as in Christianity). These are sure ways to provoke even more manifestations, often of a demonic ("evil") character.

Harpur also hints at an even higher reality, a marriage between Soul and Spirit. "Spirit" is the Divine, while "Soul" (or the World Soul) is the intermediary, astral region between Spirit and Earth. Of course, this hierarchical arrangement is simply Spirit's perspective. From the perspective of Soul, only Soul truly exists. Yet, Soul and Spirit somehow need each other. They seem to meet in Man, and at one point the author even suggests that the daimons want to become real, something they can only become by interacting with Man. "Their transformation is our self-transformation". This theme seems to be further developed in Harpur's later book "The secret tradition of the Soul".

"Daimonic Reality" did give me some insights. Anthropologists have often been bewildered by the contradictory nature of "Native" or ancient myths. How can the same cultures be so incoherent as to believe in several different creation myths at once? Nor are "primitive" religions entirely allegorical: a person possessed by a god, actually becomes that god. The concept of "daimonic" reality could be used to unlock a key or two in these contexts! Harpur points out that many modern Westerners also believe in four contradictory versions of an ancient myth. He is, of course, referring to the Gospels. If interpreted "daimonically", rather than literally, the Gospels suddenly make sense. Jesus the God-man is a daimonic man. Ironically, Harpur accepts the paradoxical Nicene creed, which defines Jesus as both God and man. In the author's opinion, Gnosticism and Arianism are forms of "literalism". If Jesus was literally divine, he can't have been really human - and if he was literally human, he can't have been really divine. The daimonic perspective makes it possible to claim that he was both. Of course, mainline Christians will nevertheless find Harpur's viewpoint too allegorical, mushy and polytheistic. Messalian, even!

I don't think "Daimonic Reality" is a suitable book for crypto-zoologists and monster-hunters. My impression of Forteans is that they *don't want* their little mysteries to be solved, since that would make the world (or their world?) incredibly boring. As for the crypto-zoologists, the literal-material world is sufficiently crazy for there to be *some* hairy ape-man somewhere, so they are not going home any time soon, either. That being said, I think Patrick Harpur's magnum opus will suit the Romantics, retro-Romantics, Jungians and (perhaps) the daimons just fine....