you know what would be nice
being able to help mod another otherkin or therian blog rather than having to start yet another one myself
therian
You know, it’s funny. I made what was probably the kindest, most civil and understanding response to this post. You can see it here, if you don’t believe me: https://ghrianleon.tumblr.com/post/175658259804/otherkin-is-not-lgbt
And I was still blocked by the OP without a single response.
I don’t think that people who say these things want any discussion. I think their goal is to start arguments, and silence anyone who tries to actually show reason and sense. I haven’t been on tumblr long, but I have seen a lot of moral posturing disguised as productive discourse. It’s disgusting to me, as a bisexual, that these people are using social justice as a vehicle for plain old rudeness. If you want to make fun of us, just do that. Don’t dress it up behind LGBTQ rights. This is concern-trolling and nothing but. That anyone would use a minority group as a smokescreen for this is childish and inappropriate.
Next time you wonder why otherkin aren’t polite to you all the time, remember things like this. Remember that no matter how nice and patient we are, we know that most of you are more concerned with your public images, and being know-it-alls, than being truthful or fair.
Over the last 20+ years I have learned this:
People who come into our communities with statements like
“I’m genuinely curious”
“I’m not here to offend”
“I want to understand this”
And statements like these, over 95% of the time are trying to disarm you to maximize their trolling. I may sound jaded but this is experience speaking from over a decade of being part and running my own otherkin communities.
The people who are misrepresenting our community by claiming to be part of it and representing it, are the same deal without the effort of getting into the community in the first place. Remember folks, anyone can post anything and put it in whatever tag they feel like. None of these people are interested in an actual debate or discourse about these issues, they just want to smack bees nests without getting stung.
Almost noone is going to come to us with the intention of listening to us explain what we are and how and why we exist, and have an open mind in doing so. Humans have an innate need to see themselves as above other humans, so they come to communities like ours to “people watch”, which is to say, see people they can justify to themselves are “not as good” as they are. They are going to troll you, to try to break you down with the same tired arguments which have been answered for decades, to call you crazy, deluded, to tell you to “get help”, etc. Its all for their own self-esteem because they haven’t dragged themselves out of their basements yet and made something, anything of their own lives. There are extremely rare exceptions but good luck finding them amongst the trash.
02
Jul
2018
Thought for the Day
There is no verb form of “kin”. You cannot “kin with something”, and “kinning” is not a thing.
The question of whether or not it’s “okay to kin with that” should never even be asked, because it’s not possible to “kin with that” in the first place. You either are a thing or you are not. It is involuntary. Ask instead (at all times) whether or not your words and actions at any given moment may be harmful to anyone else.
Otherkin is who and what we are, not something we do. It is not an action because it is not a choice.
And if you are “kin with” something that means you are their relative. I am not “kin with” dragons. I am a dragon. I am kin with my cousin.
eat my shit susan. i hope you get curb stomped
How very eloquent. You have a real gift. Rarely have I seen such marvelous command of the English language, such clever and creative prose.
How can I possibly disagree after you’ve so thoroughly proven your point? Truly I have seen the error of my ways.
You don’t at all sound like an angry Tumblrkin with no argument at all who stoops to ham handed personal attacks because you’re enraged at being called out for something you know is true. Well done.
Now if anyone has anything intelligent to say I’d be happy to have an actual discussion about the topic. I’d DM this person if they hadn’t blocked me to avoid hearing my response.
I haven’t been a part of otherkin communities for a long time. (Much suppression on my part.) What I’ve seen on tumblr so far has me really dumbfounded. Do real gatherings and conversations happen anymore?
Yes. You just have to know where to look. There’s a list of good blogs in my FAQ somewhere or other. I think it’s in the otherkin masterpost.
Can I just get down with the OP @dovewithscales for a moment and say as someone who has been kin for over 20 years that…
SHE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
These people who think you see something and then “kin with it” have absolutely no idea what being otherkin is. You are born otherkin, it is something that is a life affector, not a life choice. The process of discovering what you are is part of a life path, and very often its one you instinctually know you’re on before you even know there is a word for it.
I am not saying its impossible that you can’t become otherkin during your life, but this whole thing about “kinning with X” is outside the definition of otherkin. You will feel your kintype from within, not get it from an external source. What you are is part of you, it can’t choose you and you can’t choose it, you can only discover it as a part of what you are.
TL;DR Tumblr/Internet PLEASE stop equating “otherkin” with “permission to take on X identity as a persona”. You aren’t getting it. If you really feel you “identify as something”, then take the time to stop and figure out why, and when you have, THEN come out as otherkin. You owe this introspection mostly to yourself, to thine own self be true, if not to anyone else.
I guess before Pride Month is over I should post some bisexual art. Of myself.
Something I noticed that was very prevalent in Lupa’s Field Guide to Otherkin that I don’t often see talked about in the community was the notion that one could identify as kin on multiple levels.
Just because you believe you are spiritually kin (through reincarnation, walk-ins, etc.) doesn’t mean you can’t look at yourself through a psychological lens as well. I’ve personally found said advice very helpful and reassuring, as I feel I am spiritually-based but also find a lot of parallels and possible dragon influences on my psyche through my upbringing, but always felt like I was betraying my beliefs by entertaining psychological notions while believing I had a spiritual origin.
I’ve also noticed that she relies heavily on Jungian psychology to explain some other types of being ‘kin that are no longer talked about in the community – for example, the idea of being kin through a personal mythology origin, an archetype, an energetic resonance, etc. I recommend doing some research into this area for anyone still searching to find a possible origin..
Yessss, I’m really not a huge fan of the psychological/spiritual dichonomy, the whole this OR that thing. Why not both? Or neither? And the idea of personal mythology in regards to non-human identity is really intriguing to me and something I’d love to see talked about more. Lupa wrote these two posts (here and here) about just that and it’s a good read.
I personally believe that kinness has both spiritual and psychological aspects, at least it does for me, but I know how they got separated in the community. Both sides wanted to feel more valid than the other.
While I was considering ways to try to filter through people coming to the servers and channels I run, I came to an interesting idea that I think works and I do want to share it.
Part of an intro should be a single life experience that one attributes to otherkin or therianthropy, or an instinctual response to a kin/therian situation that indicates one responds to it differently than a human would.
I will give a prime example that applies to myself.
When most humans think of a hen house and chicken coop, will think about raising chickens and collecting eggs.
When I think about it, I think about going in there and coming out with a chicken’s neck in my mouth.
I don’t DO it, because, I know i’m physically human and it won’t turn out the same way it would if I were physically a fox, but my mind, goes there first.
In my minds eye I see myself as a fox, doing fox things, It is extra effort for me to do things the ‘human accepted way’ and there are many mental constructs I have for translating my first instinct to a proper human action. However I manage to do so anyway and fit myself into this human life.
It is examples like these that I think provides some evidence of a ‘difference’ between the human and therian/otherkin mind.
And TL;DR: in the future when people join my therian or otherkin communities, I will be asking for this, just one situation in ones life that one can attribute to therian or otherkin nature. I don’t think it is too much to ask, and I don’t think the trolls can do it, or will do it because its a tantamount admission to something they are trying to troll.
05
Jun
2018
Therian Questionnaire
This is the questionnaire mentioned in the Therian Nation video “Therianthropy is Not a Competition”. https://youtu.be/nAuIOC7bN6U
It is also mentioned in our previous post which was a transcript of the video.
https://theriannation.tumblr.com/post/174279639847/therianthropy-is-not-a-competitionThese questions are a great way to learn more about yourself, and you should probably answer them again every few months to a year to see how your experiences have changed or stayed the same. This is also a good way to introduce yourself to the community. So of course feel free to copy and use them wherever you’d like to.
1) What is your Screen Name/Therian Name?
2) Are you a Standard Therian (one therioside) or Polytherian (multiple theriosides)?
3) What species is your Therioside/Kintype? List multiple if you have more than one.
4) Are you able to make the vocalizations of your Therioside/Kintype?
5) Are you a Spiritual Therian or Psychological Therian or Both?
6) What is the origin/cause of your Therianthropy? (ex: soul is an animal)
7) How long have you been awakened?
8) What shifts (if any) have you experienced?
Mental
Phantom
Dream
Sensory
Astral/Spirit/Aura
Cameo
None (Feel nonhuman in other ways)
None (Contherian-always shifted)9) How did you discover/conclude that you were a Therianthrope? It’s okay to say you are still learning/questioning.
10) What does Therianthropy/being a Therian mean to you?
11) If you choose to, share one embarrassing moment due to being a Therian.
12) What hobbies do you enjoy?
This is also available:
Google Docs – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d6r1mhxQUOfnzqAORSRfB9V5_gO1nlW2dC8z8jwPsLI/edit?usp=sharing
Amino: http://aminoapps.com/p/qp3461
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/notes/therian-nation/therian-questionnaire/616700465377313/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/p/BjQJeRoBinb/
Tweets – https://twitter.com/TherianNation/status/1000447557254889472 and https://twitter.com/TherianNation/status/1000465837789237248
Also available for reading on Wattpad – https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/149661659-therianthropy-is-not-a-competition
1) Alynna, and its my primary name. (not given, or true name)
2) Polytherian.
3) Primarily fox, secondarily rabbit. I have aspects or “other parts of myself” which are unicorn and dragonness, however I do not consider those to be therian types, but kintypes, though unicorn is pretty close to being a horse when it comes to what you feel. Being fae is part of ALL of the previously mentioned types.
4) For fox, yes, most of them. Rabbits usually live in silence. The other two, well unicorns don’t usually talk like horses and dragons just talk like dragons.
5) Both. I believe ones spiritual history have a direct effect on the type of mind you will develop during life, because the spirit influences the mind constantly. My belief primarily stems from the experience from how my own mind has developed.
6) My spirit is primarily one of a fae-fox. I noted at a very early age that my mind worked very different from others, and from the ages 7-16 I didn’t even have any internet so I kinda believed I was alone with that.
7) I can trace my first awakening event to when I was 7 but won’t describe it in detail on a public Tumblr. So about 33 years now. Once I got internet access at around 17 it still took me a year to find the therian and otherkin communities, and that was about 24 years ago now.
8) All of those, but as I understand cameo, thats like temporarily shifting into something else.. I do feel that some aspects of myself allow for some measure of shapeshifting, but I suppose most of them, I don’t try to trigger on my own. I don’t know all the new terms well.
9) I didn’t even know what therianthropy was until I got on the internet and even then it wasn’t defined as therianthropy, it was more an extension of being a “were-creature”. The word “therianthropy” didn’t come till later. There used to be some documents out there that described therian experiences like superliminal limbs and atypical urges (wont get into detail here) and many of my experiences mirrored what was documented.
Discovering specifically what I am was more about learning about animals and comparing their traits to my own, and having alot of feline and canine traits, combined with the color patterns I saw in meditations and introspections drew me to the conclusion that I am more foxlike than anything. Before introspection I didn’t really have the context of what a fox is, and went between animals that had some of the traits I felt and experienced.
I knew early on that I had multiple tails, which was confusing to me at first until someone told me about kitsune (I did not know and back in 1997 or so it was not a common creature to know about), and most of the other things I had discovered about myself fell into place. The primary theriotype I identify as now, is the same one I have identified as for the last 20 years.
10) What it primarily means to me is that I am a fox (primarily), I feel fox things, I have fox instincts and sensations, and.. I’m not sure what else its supposed to mean to me. To me it’s always been what it is.
11) One time I was caught rolling around in my back yard, rubbing my head against the ground and that kind of stuff. That’s kind of mild but it will work.
12) I do things but I don’t know that I have a hobby.
Where are the therians who don’t believe in reincarnation or are indifferent about the cause of their therianthropy and are totally fine with that????????
Reincarnation is a valid theory and the best one I have heard so far, if we have spent different lifetimes as different things, it would make sense that our spirits would retain a sense of them between lives, and also draw a certain bias towards the type of animal that worked best for that spirit, or has been the majority of incarnations.
However that does not mean that other explanations and theories are not valid either. I believe in my case I am both spiritual and mental/psychological therian, I believe one causes the other.
I can’t make heads or tails of who is saying what in this post but I’m just going to say this, from personal experience.
M-shifts are motherf–king real.
Also, I don’t have a human side.
Rereading this over and over and I still can’t make sense of it..
Trying this again
So I realize what I previous post sounded to blunt for some people so I’m going to try this again.
For the record I’m just trying to see what other people’s opinions are on the subject. Who knows maybe my mind will be changed.
If your kin type is an animal that does not exist, you are not a therian. Yes or no?
If you have a kin type that doesn’t exist like a blue dog or a dragon you are called an other in? Yes or no?
I too are going to try this again.
The color of the animal doesn’t really make a difference. Today we can genetically alter cats to make them glow in the dark. So if someone was a glowing cat *before* this happened, does that mean they weren’t therian until now?
Your line of reasoning and exclusion goes down a very deep rabbit hole of assumption as to what existed before and what might exist in the future.
The only qualifier to qualify someone as therian, is if they identify as a type of animal that has been known to exist on Earth. And being a different color or being a hybrid with another animal does not remove that label IF they still have the therianthropic attributes of that animal.
And once again it is still possible to be both otherkin and therian.
Please don’t continue down the elitist road.
P.S. I should also note that it was actually through exploring my own fox nature that I discovered furry and I identified as therian first.
Just a (fae) phouka kitsune type thing. I’ve been out as otherkin and therian for over 20 years, and been awakened for even longer than that. I’m demi and lean towards female gender.
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