Synopsis: A Bajoran poet is rescued from the wormhole after having been kept there for over 200 years by the Prophets, and now claims to be the Emissary.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory. This is his idea that just as an acorn has all the information inside it to become a tree, we each have an inner daimon who has all the knowledge of who we are meant to be if we only listen to it.
In “Accession” a Bajoran is rescued after having been healed by the Prophets in the wormhole, and not returning for 200 years. He is a great poet, Akorem Laan, and when he claims that he is the true Emissary of the Prophets to the people of Bajor, Captain Benjamin Sisko willingly gives up the title. However, once Akorem takes this position he tells the Bajorans that the Prophets want them to revert to the former caste system that was traditional before the Cardassian occupation required everyone to became a soldier of the resistance. This edict also jeopardizes Bajor’s relationship with the Federation, so much so that Sisko withdraws his support of Akorem as the Emissary and tells Akorem that they need to go to see the Prophets in order to settle who should fill this role. The Prophets tell Sisko he is the true Emissary, and Sisko asks the Prophets to return Akorem to his own time.
In this episode the Prophets can be analogized to Sisko’s inner daimon, that guiding intelligence as to what we are meant to be. When initially Akorem appears and claims that the Prophets have told him that he is to be the Emissary, it seems to Sisko that the best thing to do is to step aside. However, when Akorem takes the Bajoran people in a direction that he does not feel is what the Prophets want, he goes back to them for guidance. The Prophets confirm for him that he is the Emissary and wait for his decision on what to do with Akorem. Sisko asks the Prophets to return Akorem to his own time, which allows him to also follow his inner daimon, and continue on in his poetry, and live the remainder of his life with his family. It was in listening to the Prophets that both men were able to be who they were meant to be, much as how when we listen to our own inner daimons, we can be who were meant to be.
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