FROM CHAPTER ONE: IN A NUTSHELL
There is more in a human life than our theories of it allow. Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path. You may remember this "something" as a signal moment in childhood when an urge out of nowhere, a fascination, a peculiar turn of events struck like an annunciation: This is what I must do, this is what I've got to have. This is who I am. (p. 3)
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The soul of each of us is given a unique daimon before we are born, and it has selected an image or pattern that we live on earth. This soul-companion, the daimon, guides us here; in the process of arrival, however, we forget all that took place and believe we come empty into this world. The daimon remembers what is in your image and belongs to your pattern, and therefore your daimon is the carrier of your destiny.
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A calling may be postponed, avoided, intermittently missed. It may also possess you completely. Whatever: eventually it will out. It makes its claim. The daimon does not go away. (p. 8)
The acorn theory proposes ... that you and I and every single person is born with a defining image. Individuality resides in a formal cause ... and this form, this idea, this image does not tolerate too much straying. The theory also attributes to this innate image an angelic or daemonic intention, as if it were a spark of consciousness; and, moreover, holds that it has our interest at heart because it chose us for its reason. (p. 12)
Let me put in a nutshell what we may so far cautiously attribute to the acorn theory. It claims that each life is formed by its unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny. As the force of fate, this image acts as a personal daimon, an accompanying guide who remembers your calling. (p. 39)
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