Analysing

With the concept of settling - the eventual discovery of the animal form that best represents your personality - being a fairly foundational part of daemonism, it's no real surprise that it is also a big part of the community. Analyses, reverse analyses, and other methods of assisting in finding the form are immensely popular. And for a good reason as well, as they make sound guides in what can sometimes be a rather stressful journey. (Not that I can really talk about stressful on account of being irritatingly lucky with my form-finding.) With so much of it being rather vague, any reassurance of being on the right track is welcome.

Yet I worry that the community slowly comes to rely on these methods of assistance too much and strays away from the true function of the settled form. The function of a daemon crosses into many different areas, but the function of a settled form is to allow a person to better understand themselves. It's introspection, plain and simple. It's not always going to be a sudden epiphany, or a situation where the daemon apparently known instinctively just what form to take.

So trawling through analyses to find one that fits, or asking people what they think about the suitability of every form the daemon frequents, or posting RA after RA...seems like it only makes everything more stressful. These methods start shifting from a helpful asset to a crutch, and the idea of exploring yourself in order to find the form starts creeping out the window. The process gets swapped, and while it might work for some, I'm sure it can't be good for others.

I imagine this makes me sound like a cranky old fogey grumbling about the rise of taxes. And it's not really as though it's some new phenomenan. I just like to fret.