Spiritual Education Gets a Lot Easier When Your Spirit has a Physical Form

When I was in elementary school, I started to read The Golden Compass, but put it down halfway through and never finished it. This week, I thought it would be a good opportunity to finally read the book the entire way through.

            The most interesting and immediately apparent aspect of this novel is the concept that a person’s soul takes on a physical form outside of his body. In the case of The Golden Compass, the soul takes the shape of an animal (referred to as a daemon), and is a reflection of the person’s soul and of their innermost desires. This fascinated me when I was younger, and I remember trying to come up with what my own daemon would look and act like.

            This concept of an outside soul provides a canvas for some interesting commentary on real-world issues. For example, in the world of The Golden Compass, it becomes impossible to hide one’s “true self.” Such as in the case with Ms. Coulter, she has the appearance and mannerisms of the “ideal” woman, but her daemon is cruel and ruthless. Thus, even before Ms. Coulter’s true nature is revealed, it is apparent that she too has a cruel and ruthless side that she can’t hide. This application of the daemons idea conveys how someone’s true nature may be very different from the nature they project to the world. Although in reality there is no easy way to expose someone’s true nature, the moral of this example is not to be so blinded by someone’s surface (as Lyra was) that you neglect to consider what might lie underneath.

            This book also followed (more or less) the Hero’s Journey, although since it is the first part in a three part series the Journey does not reach true conclusion in this novel. There is a call to action, a prophecy,  a road of trials, acquirement of boons (the compass), “magic” flight, recognition of sorts by both Lyra’s mother and father, mastery of two worlds (human and polar bear), and so on and so forth, not necessarily in this order. The “symbolic death” aspect plays an especially important role in the story, as a main point of the plot involves separating children from their souls and essentially killing them. Although this doesn’t happen to Lyra, it 1) almost does and 2) happens to several of her friends and serves as the main evil action that the antagonists perform, and is essentially why the antagonists are the antagonists. This symbolic/literal death plays such a big part in the story, especially the reveal that it is occurring, that I count it as part of the Hero’s Journey. The only part missing in the Hero’s Journey cycle is the “freedom to live,” which assumedly comes in the later books. This use of the Hero’s Journey allows the characters in the novel to fall into familiar archetypes, which further highlights the goodness of Lyra and her allies, and the evilness of her enemies, her mother, father, and the Oblation Board. This allows the novel to use this good vs. evil dichotomy to make commentary on religion, morals, and so forth.