Shifting Gears

Never let it be said that finding your settled form will grant you a sudden, complete, and infallible understanding of yourself, because that is a load of crap.

I have, for a long time now, considered settling to be a process rather than an event. I know there are people who would disagree with me; people who feel that they are able to pinpoint the exact moment that settling occurred, and that there should be some sort of instantaneous sensation within you that proves, without doubt, that you are settled. Personally, I don't buy it. Such a notion ties a little too strongly back to the fictional foundation of daemonism, and while I'm perfectly happy to acknowledge that foundation, I think its separation from the world we actually exist in means some things just don't translate across - like objective settled forms that our daemons just know to one day take when we're ready.

So the introspective part of this process comes less from gaining an understanding of yourself via the settled form, and more from understanding yourself enough to find that settled form. In a ‘chicken and the egg’ comparison, I would say personality stability comes before settled form. As outlined in my old Concentric Rings Theory, it does not have to be a rock-solid stability, and there will be room for growth and change after settledom, just presumably still within the bounds of the form.

Of course, there is also the unfortunate fact that 100% certainty about any of these things is frankly impossible. We are discussing an abstract concept pieced together via discussion and experimentation, with vague ties to the psychological. The community itself is only roughly five or six years old, so there is no proven doctrine – merely a constant interchange of systems believed to work best until a better is found. There is also a notable lack of daemians who have participated in the philosophy for a great many years, leaving an enormous gap in the chart of empirical evidence when it comes to what may happen in later adulthood.

As for perfect self-knowledge? I have spent close to five years resting fairly solidly in a personality range that is apparently best described by coyote. I have read most website information available on the animal, and painstakingly collated a series of coyote-centric books (mostly with the help of much-beloved American contacts). I have lived with myself for a fairly impressive while now.

And I still have those teeth-grinding, hair-tearing, fist-pounding moments of who the hell am I and why don't I make sense.

So if you can relate to that, no worries. I think it's just a fact of fluid, progressive life.