Daimones

**Origin:** Greece, Anatolia

Daimones is a corruption of Theoi Nomioi, meaning “Spirits of the Countryside” or “Sacred Beings of the Countryside.” A daimon is in ancient Greek lore, an intermediary spirit between humanity and the gods. Daimones are either good or evil. A good daimon protects and gives good advice, though even good ones will act in a hostile fashion when angered. Evil daimones lead one astray with bad advice. A good daimon is called an agathodaimon and an evil daimon is called a kakodaimon. They are wild, rustic spirits, inhabitants of forests, mountains, and uncultivated fields. These spirits form entourages for Artemis, Dionysus, Hermes, Pan, and Kybele.

The word daimone or daemon means different things in different places and contexts. In ancient Italy, it referred to one’s personal presiding spirit, a sort of guardian angel. This is the meaning from which the animal-daemons of author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy derive. In esoteric circles of the early Common Era, daimone was synonymous with angel.

They drink; they dance; they play flutes and percussion instruments. They are spirits of ecstasy, intoxication, and sex. They are not malicious or evil but can be raucous and may find it fun to scare mortals just to see them panic, run, and scream. They may be spirits of temptation, offering pleasures of sex, intoxication, and nature. They don’t want your soul; they just want company and fun.

They are gregarious spirits who travel in fluid packs or gangs. They are happy to expand their circle of acquaintances, providing that you are fun and do not try to exploit them. They may be drunken and rustic, but they’re sharp-witted with a good eye for true inner character. Many can be benevolent and generous, if so inclined. They are spirits of prophecy and can reveal secrets of the past and future. They can locate who or what is missing. They are not tame spirits and will not live happily indoors, at least not for long. Relationships with them may need to be maintained on their turf. Post-Christianity, this unruly, wild bunch was reclassified as “Demons.” Grimoires for ceremonial Magic include instructions for evoking and commanding daimones.

Daimones include various classes of entities, such as guardian spirits of places, tutelary spirits, genii, ministering spirits and demigods. They also have been associated with the souls of the dead and ghosts, stars and planets, and plants and minerals of the earth. They are ministering spirits (resembling angels), godlike beings, and souls of dead persons. Daimones can take over human bodies in the form of Possession (especially for oracular prophecy) and possess humans to cause physical and mental illness. Some are vampiric in nature.

Socrates claimed he had a lifelong daimon that sounded warnings when things were about to go badly, but never gave orders as to what he should do. Socrates said his daimon was more trustworthy than omens from the flights and entrails of birds, which the Greeks often consulted for matters of great import.

Frederic W.H. Myers, an English psychical researcher, opined that Socrates’ daimon was his own subconscious speaking to him in a form—a spirit—that was acceptable to Greeks at the time. In Jungian psychology, the daimon would be considered the Higher Self, that part of the psyche that looks out for one’s well-being and communicates with the waking conscious through intuition. The Christian Church considered all such pagan spirits as evil Demons, servants of the devil.

However, the concept of a protective spirit has survived in the form of a “guardian spirit,” believed by some to be attached to all persons from the moment of birth.

**See Also:** Artemis; Demon; Dionysus; Hermes; Kybele; Nymph; Pan

## Information Source

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology by Rosemary Ellen Guiley