A dæmon (/ˈdiːmən/) is a type of fictional being in the Philip Pullman fantasy trilogies His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust.
"[2] Dæmons supposedly occur in every world, but in Lyra's universe they take an external shape, even if they are not corporeal.
The sexual element of human/dæmon interaction is also reflected when Pantalaimon and Kirjava assume their final forms, as they officially settle after Will and Lyra stroke the other's dæmon.
[citation needed] During puberty, children's dæmons "settle" into a form which reflects their mature personality.
The exact distance the two can separate is unclear; Lee Scoresby expresses surprise when a bird dæmon travels forty yards from her human, while Lyra is uncomfortable when Pan goes to a second storey window while she is standing in front of the same building.
A permanent separation between human and dæmon kills both and releases a huge burst of energy, which, for instance, is harnessed by Lord Asriel to blast a hole between two overlapping universes at the end of Northern Lights.
[4] Shamans endure gruelling ordeals that involve leaving their dæmon as they embark on a spiritual quest, crossing an area of death where nothing may grow or live.
The Secret Commonwealth establishes that others have undergone separation from their dæmons or have pushed the bond past its usual limits.
Maude Hines in her essay on Philip Pullman's work wrote that the concept of the dæmon, as a clearly fantastic element, epitomizes Bourdieu's "space of the possibles", and that the dæmon is "an animal familiar like Jung's anima/animus, which acts as an externalized conscience or soul".